THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


HISTORY 

OF  THE 

INTELLECTUAL  DEVELOPMENT 

OF 

EUROPE. 


BY  JOHN  WILLIAM  DRAPER,  M.D.,  LL.D., 

Professor  of  Chemistry  in  the  University  of  New  York,  Author  of  a 

"Treatise  on  Human  Physiology,"  "Civil  Policy  of  America," 

"History  of  the  American  Civil  War,"  &c. 


REVISED  EDITION,  IN  TWO  VOLUMES. 

VOL.  I. 


NEW    YORK: 
HARPER    &    BROTHERS,   PUBLISHERS, 

FRANKLIN     SQUARE. 


6166     5 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  In  the  year  1876,  by 

HARPER   &   BROTHERS, 
In  the  Office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress,  at  Washington. 


c 
5 


V 


PREFACE. 


AT  the  meeting  of  the  British  Association  for  the  Advance- 
ment of  Science,  held  at  Oxford  in  1860,  I  read  an  abstract 
of  the  physiological  argument  contained  in  this  work 
respecting  the  mental  progress  of  Europe,  reserving  the 
historical  evidence  for  subsequent  publication. 

This  work  contains  that  evidence.  It  is  intended  as  the 
completion  of  my  treatise  on  Human  Physiology,  in  which 
man  was  considered  as  an  individual.  In  this  he  is 
considered  in  his  social  relation. 

But  the  reader  will  also  find,  I  think,  that  it  is  a 
history  of  the  progress  of  ideas  and  opinions  from  a  point 
of  view  heretofore  almost  entirely  neglected.  There  are 
two  methods  of  dealing  with  philosophical  questions — the 
literary  and  the  scientific.  Many  things  which  in  a 
purely  literary  treatment  of  the  subject  remain  in  the 
background,  spontaneously  assume  a  more  striking  position 
when  their  scientific  relations  are  considered.  It  is  the 
latter  method  that  I  have  used. 

Social  advancement  is  as  completely  under  the  control  of 
natural  law  as  is  bodily  growth.  The  life  of  an  individual 
is  a  miniature  of  the  life  of  a  nation.  These  propositions 
it  is  the  special  object  of  this  book  to  demonstrate. 

No  one,  I  believe,  has  hitherto  undertaken  the  labour  of 
arranging  the  evidence  offered  by  the  intellectual  history 
of  Europe  in  accordance  with  physiological  principles, 


IV  I'KEFACE. 

so  as  to  illustrate  the  orderly  progress  of  civilization, 
or  collected  the  facts  furnished  by  other  branches  of 
science  with  a  view  of  enabling  us  to  recognize  clearly 
the  conditions  under  which  that  progress  takes  place. 
This  philosophical  deficiency  I  have  endeavoured  in  the 
following  pages  to  supply. 

Seen  thus  through  the  medium  of  physiology,  history 
presents  a  new  aspect  to  us.  We  gain  a  more  just  and 
thorough  appreciation  of  the  thoughts  and  motives  of  men 
in  successive  ages  of  the  world. 

In  the  Preface  to  the  second  edition  of  my  Physiology, 
published  in  1858,  it  was  mentioned  that  this  work  was 
at  that  time  written.  The  changes  that  have  been  since 
made  in  it  have  been  chiefly  with  a  view  of  condensing  it. 
The  discussion  of  several  scientific  questions,  such  as  that 
of  the  origin  of  species,  which  have  recently  attracted 
public  attention  so  strongly,  has,  however  remained  un- 
touched, the  principles  offered  being  the  same  as  presented 
in  the  former  work  in  1856. 

New  York,  1861. 


PREFACE  TO  THE  EEVISED  EDITION. 

MANY  reprints  of  this  work  having  been  issued,  and 
translations  published  in  various  foreign  languages, 
French,  German,  Russian,  Polish,  Servian,  &c.,  I  have 
been  induced  to  revise  it  carefully,  and  to  make  additions 
wherever  they  seemed  to  be  desirable.  I  therefore  hope 
that  it  will  commend  itself  to  the  continued  approval 
of  the  public. 

November,  1875. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

ON  THE  GOVERNMENT  OP  NATURE  BY  LAW. 

The  suly'ect  of  this  Work  proposed. — Its  difficulty. 

Gradual  Acquisition  of  the  Idea  of  Natural  Government  by  Law. — 
Eventually  sustained  by  Astronomical,  Meteorological,  and  Physio- 
logical Discoveries. — Illustrations  from  Kepler's  Laws,  the  Trade- 
winds,  Migrations  of  Birds,  Balancing  of  Vegetable  and  Animal  Life, 
Variation  of  Species  and  their  Permanence. 

Individual  Man  is  an  Emblem  of  Communities,  Nations,  and  Universal 
Humanity. —  They  exhibit  Epochs  of  Life  like  his,  and,  like  him,  are 
under  the  Control  of  Physical  Conditions,  and  therefore  of  Lain. 

Plan  of  this  Work. — The  Intellectual  History  of  Greece. — Its  Five 
characteristic  Ages.— European  Intellectual  History. 

Grandeur  of  the  Doctrine  that  the  World  is  governed  by  Law     .     Page  1 


CHAPTER  II. 

OF  EUROPE:  ITS  TOPOGRAPHY  AND  ETHNOLOGY. 

ITS  PRIMITIVE  MODES  OP   THOUGHT,   AND  THEIR  PROGRESSIVE  VARIATIONS, 
MANIFESTED   IN  THE  GREEK  AGE  OF  CREDULITV. 

Description  of  Europe :  its  Topojraphy,  Meteorology,  and  secular 
Geological  Movements. — Their  Effect  on  its  Inhabitants. 

Its  Ethnology  determined  through  its  Vocabularies. 

Comparative  Theology  of  Greece ;  the  Stage  of  Sorcery,  the  Anthro- 
porentric  Stage. — Becomes  connected  icith  false  Geography  and 
Astronomy. — Heaven,  the  Earth,  the  Under  World. — Origin,  continuous 
Variation  and  Progress  of  Greek  Theology. — It  introduces  Ionia 
Philosophy. 


CONTENTS. 


Derline  of  Greek  Theology,  occasioned  by  the  Advame  of  Geography  and 
I'hiltisophirul  Criticism.—  Secession  of  Poets,  Philosophers,  Historians. 
—  Abortive  public  Attempts  to  sustain  it.  —  Duration  of  its  Decline.  — 
Itt  Fall  ,  ..........  Pago  23 


CHAPTER  III. 

DIGRESSION   ON   HINDU   THEOLOGY  AND   EGYPTIAN   CIVILIZATION. 

Comparative  Theology  of  India ;  its  Phase  of  Sorcery ;  its  Anthropo- 
centric  Phase. 

VEDAISM  tlie  Contemplation  of  Matter,  or  Adoration  of  Nature,  set 
forth  in  tJie  Vedas  and  Institutes  of  Menu. — The  Universe  is  God. — 
Transmutation  of  the  World.— Doctrine  of  Emanation. — Transmigra- 
tion.—  Absorption.  —  Penitential  £•  rricet. —  Happiness  in  Abf<>hit<: 
Quietude. 

BUDDHISM  the  Contemplation  of  Force— The  supreme  impersonal  Power. 
— Nature  of  the  World — of  Man. — The  Passage  of  every  thing  to 
Nonentity. — Development  of  Buddhism  into  a  vast  monastic,  N//</  ;,i 
marked  by  intense  Selfishness. — Its  practical  Godlsssness. 

EGYPT  a  mysterious  Country  to  the  old  Europeans. — Its  History,  great 
public  Works,  and  foreign  Itelations. — Antiquity  of  its  Civilization  and 
Art. — Its  Philosophy,  hieroglyphic  Literature,  and  peculiar  Agriculture. 

Rise  of  Civilization  in  rainless  Countries. —  Geography,  Geology,  and 
Topography  of  Egypt.  —  The  Inundations  of  fie  Nile  lead  to 
Astronomy. 

Comparative  Theology  of  Egypt. — Animal  Worship,  Stir  Worship. — 
Impersonation  of  Divine  Attributes — Pantlieism. — The  Trinities  of 
Egypt.  —  Incarnation.  —  liedemption.  —  Future  Judgment.  —  Trial  of 
the  Dead. — Rituals  and  Ceremonies  ....  56 


CHAPTER  IV. 

GREEK  AGE  OP  INQUIRY. 

RISE  AND  DECLINE  OP   PHYSICAL  SPECULATION. 

IONIAN  PHILOSOPHY,  commencing  from  Erryptian  Ideas,  identifies  in 
Water,  or  Air,  or  Fire,  the  Firft  I'l-twijile.— Emerging  from  the  Stage 
of  Sorcery,  it  founds  Psychology,  Biology,  Cosmogony,  Astronomy,  and 
ends  in  doubting  whether  there  is  any  Criterion  of  Truth. 


CONTENTS.  Vll 

ITALIAN  PHILOSOPHY  depends  on  Numbers  and  Harmonies.  —  It 
reproduces  the  Egyptian  and  Hindu  Doctrine  of  Transmigration. 

ELEATIC  PHILOSOPHY  presents  a  great  Advance,  indicating  a  rapid 
Approach  to  Oriental  Ideas. — It  assumes  a  Pantheistic  Aspect. 

RISE  OF  PHILOSOPHY  IN  EUROPEAN  GREECE. — Relations  and  Influence  of 
ihe  Mediterranean  Commercial  and  Colonial  System. — Athens  attains 
to  commercial  Supremacy. — Her  vast  Progress  in  Intelligence  and  Art. 
— Her  Demoralization. — She  becomes  the  Intellectual  Centre  of  the 
Mediterranean. 

Commencement  of  the  Athenian  higher  Analysis. — It  is  conducted  by  THE 
SOPHISTS,  who  reject  Philosophy,  Religion,  and  even  Morality,  and  end 
in  Atheism. 

Political  Dangers  of  the  higher  Analysis. — Illustration  from  the  Middle 
Ages Page  91 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE   GKEEK  AGE  OF  FAITH. 
RISE   AXD   DECLINE  OF   ETHICAL  THILOSOPIIT. 

SOCRATES  rejects  Physical  and  Mathematical  Speculations,  and  asscrls 
the  Importance  of  Virtue  and  Morality,  thereby  inaugurating  an  Age 
of  Faith. — His  Life  and  Death. — The  schools  originating  from  his 
Movement  teach  the  Pursuit  of  Pleasure  and  Gratification  of  Self. 

PLATO  founds  ihe  Academy. — His  three  primal  Principles. — The  Ex- 
istence of  a  personal  God. — Nature  of  the  World  and  the  Soul. —  The 
ideal  Theory,  Generals  or  Types. — Reminiscence. — Transmigration. — 
Plato's  political  Institutions.  —  His  Republic.  —  His  Proofs  of  the 
Immortality  of  the  Soul. — Criticism  on  his  Doctrines. 

RISE  OF  THE  SCEPTICS,  who  conduct  the  higher  Analysis  of  Ethical 
Philosophy. — Pyrrho  demonstrates  the  Uncertainty  of  Knowledge. — 
Inevitable  Passage  into  tranquil  Indifference,  Quietude,  and  Irreligion, 
as  recommended  by  Epicurus'. — Decomposition  of  the  Socratic  and 
Platonic  Systems  in  the  later  Academies. — TJieir  Errors  and  Duplicities 
—End  of  the  Greek  Age  of  Faith 143 


viii  CONTESTS. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

THE  GREEK  AGE  OP   REASON. 
RISE  OP  SCIENCE. 

THE  MACEDONIAN  CAMPAIGN. — Disastrous  in  it*  political  Effects  to 
Greece,  but  usltering  in  the  Age  of  Reason. 

AuiSTOTLE/oundg  the  Inductive  Philosophy. — His  Method  the  Inverse  of 
that  of  Plato. — Its  great  power. — In  his  oicn  hands  it  fails  for  want 
of  Knowledge,  but  is  carried  out  by  the  Alexandrians. 

ZESO. — ///*  Philosophical  Aim  t«  the  Cultivation  of  Virtue  and  Know- 
ledge.— He  is  in  the  Ethical  Branch  the  Counterpart  of  Aristotle  in 
tlie  Physical, 

FOUNDATION  OF  THE  MUSEUM  OP  ALEXANDRIA. — The  great  Libraries, 
ies,  Botanical  Gardens,  Menageries,  Dissecting  Houses. —  Its 
on  tte  rapid  Development  of  exact  Knowledge. — Influence  of 
Euclid,  Archimedes,  Eratosthenes,  Apollonius,  Ptolemy,  Hippurchus, 
on  Geometry,  Natural  Philosophy,  Astronomy,  CJironology,  Geography. 

Decline  of  tlte  Greek  Age  of  Reason Pago  171 


CHAPTER  VII. 

THE  GREEK  AGE  OP  INTELLECTUAL  DECREPITUDE. 

THE   DEATH  OP  GREEK   PHILOSOPHY. 

Decline  of  Greek  Philosophy:  it  becomes  Retrospective,  and  in  Philo 
tiie  Jew  and  Apollonius  of  Tyana  leans  on  Inspiration,  Mysticism, 
Miracles. 

NEO-PLATONISM  founded  by  Ammonius  Saccas,  followed  by  Plotinus, 
Porphyry,  lamblicus,  Proclus. — The  Alexandrian  Trinity. — Ecstasy. 
— Alliance  with  Magic,  Necromancy. 

The  Emperor  Justinian  closes  tlie  philosophical  Schools. 

Summary  of  Greek  Philosophy. — Its  four  Problems:  1.  Origin  of  the 
World ;  2.  Nature  of  the  Soul;  3.  Existence  of  God;  4.  Criterion  of 
Truth. — Solution  of  these  Problems  in  the  Age  of  Inquiry — in  that  of 
Faith— in  that  of  Reason — in  that  of  Decrepitude. 


CONTESTS.  1~ 

Determination  of  the  Law  of  Variation  of  Greek  Opinion.  —  The 
Development  of  National  Intellect  is  the  same  as  that  of  Individual. 

Determination  of  the  final  Conclusions  cf  Greek  Philosophy  as  to  God, 
the  World,  the  Soul,  the  Criterion  of  Truth.  —  Illustrations  and 
Criticisms  on  each  of  these  Points Pago  207 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

DIGRESSION  ON   THE   HISTOKY   AND   PHILOSOPHICAL   INFLUENCES 
OF   BO3IE. 

PREPARATION   FOR  RESUMING  THB    EXAMINATION   OF  THE   INTELLECTUAL   PROGRESS 
OF   EUROl'E. 

Religious  Ideas  of  the  primitice  Europeans. — The  Form  of  their  Varia- 
tions is  determined  by  the  Influence  of  Rome. — Necessity  of  Roman 
History  in  these  Investigations. 

Rise  and  Development  of  Roman  Power,  its  successive  Phase*,  territorial 
Acquisitions. — Becomes  Supreme  in  the  Mediterranean. — Consequent 
Demoralization  of  Italy.  —  Irresistible  Concentration  of  Poicer. — 
Development  of  Imperialism. — Eventual  Extinction  of  the  true  Roman 
Race. 

Effect  on  the  intellectual,  religious,  and  social  Condition  of  the  Mediter- 

.  ranean  Countries.  —  Produces  homogeneous  Thought.  —  Imperialism 
prepares  the  Way  for  Monotheism. — Momentous  Transition  of  the 
Roman  World  in  its  religious  Ideas. 

Opinions  of  the  Roman  Philosophers. — Coalescence  of  the  new  and  old 
Ideas. — Seizure  of  Power  by  the  Illiterate,  and  consequent  Debasement 
of  Christianity  in  Rome 239 


CHAPTER  IX. 

THE  EUROPEAN  AGE  OF  INQUIRY. 

THE  PROGRESSIVE  VARIATION   OF    OPINIONS  CLOSED   BY  THB   INSTITUTION   OF 

COUNCILS  AND  THE  CONCENTRATION  OF   POWER   IN  A   PONTIFF. 
RISE,   EAKLY   VARIATIONS,   CONFLICTS,   AND  FINAL   ESTABLISHMENT  OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

Rise  of  Christianity. — Distinguished  from  ecclesiastical  Organization. — 
//  in  demanded  by  the  deplorable  Condition  of  the  Empire. — Its  brief 
Conflict  with  Paganism. —  Character  of  its  first  Organization. — 
Variations  of  Thought  and  Rise  of  Seels:  their  essential  Difference  in 
the  East  and  West. — The  three  primitive  Forms  of  Christianity :  the 
Judaic  Form,  its-  End — the  Gnostic  Form,  its  End — the  African 
Form,  continues. 


X  CONTENTS. 

Spread  of  Christianity  from  Syria. — Its  Antagonism  to  Imperialism, 
their  Conflicts. — Position  of  Affairs  under  Diocletian. — The  Policy  oj 
Constanline. — lie  avails  himself  of  the  Christian  Party,  and  through  it 
attains  supreme  Power. — His  personal  Relations  to  it. 

The  Trinitarian  Controversy. — Story  of  Arius. — The  Council  of  Nicea. 

The  Progress  of  the  Bishop  of  Rome  to  Supremacy.  —  The  Roman 
Church  ;  its  primitive  subordinate  Position. — Causes  of  its  increasing 
Wealth,  Influence,  and  Corruptions.  —  Stages  of  its  Advancement 
through  the  Pelagian,  Nestorian,  and  Eutychian  Disputes. — Rivalry 
of  the  Bishops  of  Constantinople,  Alexandria,  and  Rome. 

Necessity  of  a  Pontiff  in  the  West  and  ecclesiastical  Councils  in  the  East. 
— Xature  of  those  Councils  and  of  pontifical  Power. 

Tin-  I'criod  closes  at  Hie  Capture  and  Sack  of  Rome  by  Alaric. — Defence 
t>f  that  l'.v<  nt  l>y  St.  Augustine. — Criticism  on  his  Writings. 

CJinrai-ter  of  the  Progress  of  Thought  through  this  Period. — Destiny  of 
the  three  great  Bishops Page  266 


CHAPTER  X. 

THE  EUROPEAN  AGE  OF  FAITH. 
AGE  OF   FAITH   IN  TllK  F.AST. 

Consolidation  of  the  Byzantine  System,  or  the  Union  of  Church  and 
State. — The  consequent  Paganization  of  Religion  and  Persecution  of 
1'hil'isophy. 

Political  Necessity  for  the  enforcement  of  Patristicism,  or  Science  of  the 
Fattier s. — Its  peculiar  Doctrines. 

Obliteration  of  the  Vestiges  of  Greek  Knowledge  by  Patristicism. — The 
Libraries  and  Serapion  of  Alexandria. — Destruction  of  tlie  latter  by 
Theodosius. — Death  of  Hypatia. — Extinction  of  Learning  in  the  East 
by  Cyril,  his  Associates  and  Successors 308 


CHAPTER  XL 

I'KEMATUBE   END  OF  TUB  AGE   OP   FAITH   IN   THE   EAST. 

THE   THREE  ATTACKS,  VANDAL,   PERSIAN,   ARAB. 

TII r  VANDAL  ATTACK  leads  to  the  Loss  of  Africa. — Recovery  of  that 
1'n'Ctnce  by  Justinian  after  ur^al  Calamilitt. 


CONTENTS.  Xi 

THE  PERSIAN  ATTACK  leads  to  the  Loss  of  Syria  and  Fall  of  Jerusalem. 
— The  true  Cross  carried  away  as  a  Trophy. — Moral  Impression  of 
these  Attacks. 

THE  ARAB  ATTACK. — Birth,  Mission,  and  Doctrines  of  Mohammed. — 
Rapid  Spread  of  his  Faith  in  Asia  and  Africa. — Fall  of  Jerusalem. — 
Dreadful  Losses  of  Christianity  to  Mohammedanism. — The  Arabs 
become  a  learned  Nation. 

Review  of  the  Koran. — Reflexions  on  the  Loss  of  Asia  and  Africa  by 
Christendom Page  326 


CHAPTER  XII. 

THE   AGE   OF    FAITH    IN   THE   WEST. 

The  Age  of  Faith  in  the  West  is  marked  by  Paganism. — The  Arabian 
military  Attaclis  produce  the  Isolation  and  permit  the  Independence  of 
the  Bishop  of  Rome. 

GREGORY  THE  GREAT  organizes  the  Ideas  of  his  Age,  materializes  Faith, 
allies  it  to  Art,  rejects  Science,  and  creates  the  Italian  Form  of 
Religion. 

An  Alliance  of  the  Papacy  with  France  diffuses  that  Form. — Political 
History  of  the  Agreement  and  Conspiracy  of  the  Prankish  Kings  and 
the  Pope. — The  resulting  Consolidation  of  the  neic  Dynasty  in  France, 
and  Diffusion  of  Roman  Ideas. — Conversion  of  Europe. 

The  Value  of  the  Italian  Form  of  Religion  determined  from  the  papal 
Biography 349 


CHAPTEE  XIII. 

DIGRESSION  ON  THE  PASSAGE  OF  THE  AEABIANS  TO  THEIE  AGE 
OF  REASON. 

INFLUENCE   OF  MEDICAL   IDEAS  THROUGH   THE  NESTqiSIANS  AND  JEWS. 

The  intellectual  Development  of  the  Arabians  is  guided  by  the  Nestorians 
and  the  Jews,  and  is  in  the  Medical  Direction. — The  Basis  of  this 
Alliance  is  theological. 

Antagonism  of  the  Byzantine  System  to  Scientific  Medicine. — Suppres~ 
sion  of  the  Asclepions. — Their  Replacement  by  Miracle-cure. — The 
resulting  Superstition  and  Ignorance. 


Xll  CONTENTS. 

Affiliation  of  the  Arabians  with  the  Nestorians  and  Jews. 

l»t.  Tlie  Nestorians,  their  Persecutions,  and  the  Diffusion  r>f  tlieir  Scc- 
tarian  Heat. — They  inherit  the  old  Greek  Medicine. 

Sub-digression  on  Greek  Medicine. — The  Asdepions. — Philosophical 
Importance  of  Hippocrates,  who  separates  Medicine  from  IMiijiun. — 
The  School  of  Guides. — Its  Suppression  by  Constant  :n- . 

Sub~digre$sion  on  Egyptian  M><l<<-ine. — It  is  founded  on  Anatomy  and 
Physiology. — Dissections  and  Vivisections. — The  Great  Alexandrian 
Physicians. 

'2ti'l.  The  Jewish  Physicians.  — Their  Emancipation  from  Superstition. — 
They  found  Colleges  and  promote  Science  and  Letters. 

Tin'  contemporary  Tendency  to  Magic,  Necronuincy,  tJw  Black  Art. — The 
Philosopher's  Stone,  Elixir *>f  Life,  etc. 

The  Arabs  originate,  scientific  Chemistry. — Discover  the  strong  Acids, 
Phosphorus,  etc. — Their  geological  Ideas. — Apply  Chemistry  to  the 
Practice  of  Medicine. — Approach  of  the  Conflict  between  the  Saracenic 
matt  rial  and  the  European  supernatural  System  .  .  .  Page  383 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

THE  AGE  OF   FAITH  IN  THE  WEST — (Continued). 
IMAGE-WOKSlllr  AND  THE  MONKS. 

Origin  of  IMAGE-WORSHIP. — Inutilihj  of  Images  discovered  in  Asia  and 
Africa  during  the  Saracen  Wars. — Rise  of  Iconoclasm. 

The  Emperors  prohibit  Image-worship. — The  Monks,  aided  by  court 
Females,  sustain  it. —  Victory  of  the  latter. 

Image-worship  in  the  West  sustained  by  tlie  Popes. — Quarrel  between  the 
Emperor  and  the  Pope. — The  Pope,  aided  by  the  Monkf,  remits  and 
allies  himself  with  the  Franlts. 

-  THE  MONKS. — Hiftory  of  the  Rise  and  Development  of  Monasticism. — 
Hermits  and  Coenobites. — Spread  of  Monasticism  from  Egypt  orcr 
Enroi  e.  — Monk  Mirnrle*  and  Legends. — Humanizal  ion  t>f  the  monastic 
]\9t(tlili»hments. — Tltey  materialize  Religion,  and  impress  their  Ideas 
on  Europe 413 


THE  INTELLECTUAL  DEVELOPMENT  OF 
EUEOPE, 


CHAPTEE  I. 
ON  THK  GOVERNMENT  OF  NATURE  BY  LAW. 

77,  e  subject  of  this  Work  proposed. — Its  difficulty. 

Gradual  Acquisition  of  the  Idea  of  Natural  Government  by  Law. — 
Eventually  sustained  by  Astronomical,  Meteorological,  and  Physio- 
logical Disco f  cries. — Illustrations  from  Kepler's  Laics,  the  Trade- 
winds,  Migrations  of  Birds,  Balancing  of  Vegetable  and  Animal  Life, 
Variation  of  Species  and  their  Permanence. 

Individual  Man  is  an  Emblem  «f  Communities,  Nations,  and  Universal 
Humanity.  —  They  exhibit  Epochs  of  Life  like  his,  and,  like  him,  ar 
under  the  Control  of  Physical  Conditions,  and  therefore  of  Law. 

Plan  of  this  Work. —  The  Intellectual  Hittory  of  Greece. — Its  Five 
characteristic  Ages. — European  Intellectual  History. 

Grandeur  of  the  Doctrine  that  the  World  is  governed  by  Law. 

I  INTEND,  in  this  work,  to  consider  in  what  manner  the 
advancement  of  Europe  in  civilization  has  taken  The  subject 
place,  to  ascertain  how  far  its  progress  has  been  prop086*1- 
fortuitous,  and  how  far  determined  by  primordial  law. 

Does  the  procession  of  nations  in  time,  like  the  erratic 
phantasm  of  a  dream,  go  forward  without  reason  or  order  ? 
or,  is  there  a  predetermined,  a  solemn  march,  in  which 
all  must  join,  ever  moving,  ever  resistlessly  advancing, 
encountering  and  enduring  an  inevitable  succession  of 
events  ? 

In  a  philosophical  examination  of  the  intellectual  and 
political  history  of  nations,  an  answer  to  these  questions 
is  to  be  found.  But  how  difficult  it  is  to  master  the  mass 
of  facts  necessary  to  be  collected,  to  handle  so  great  an 
accumulation,  to  place  it  in  the  clearest  point  of  view; 

VOL.  I.— 2 


2  ON   THE  GOVERNMENT  [CH.  I. 

how  difficult  it  is  to  select  correctly  the  representative 
its  difficulty  men,  to  produce  them  in  the  proper  scenes,  and 
and  grandeur,  to  conduct  successfully  so  grand  and  com- 
plicated a  drama  as  that  of  European  life !  Though  in 
one  sense  the  subject  offers  itself  as  a  scientific  problem, 
and  in  that  manner  alone  I  have  to  deal  with  it;  in 
another  it  swells  into  a  noble  epic — the  life  of  humanity, 
its  warfare  and  repose,  its  object  and  its  end. 

Man  is  the  archetype  of  society.  Individual  develop- 
ment is  the  model  of  social  progress. 

Some  have  asserted  that  human  affairs  are  altogether 
determined  by  the  voluntary  action  of  men,  some  that  the 
Providence  of  God  directs  us  in  every  step,  some  that  all 
events  are  fixed  by  Destiny.  It  is  for  us  to  ascertain  how 
far  each  of  these  affirmations  is  true. 

The  life  of  individual  man  is  of  a  mixed  nature.  In 
individual  Par*  ^°  submits  to  the  free-will  impulses  of 
Hfc  of  a  mixed  himself  and  others,  in  part  he  is  under  the 
inexorable  dominion  of  law.  He  insensibly 
changes  his  estimate  of  the  relative  power  of  each  of  these 
influences  as  he  passes  through  successive  stages.  In  the 
confidence  of  youth  he  imagines  that  very  much  is  under 
his  control,  in  the  disappointment  of  old  age  very  little. 
As  time  wears  on,  and  the  delusions  of  early  imagination 
vanish  away,  he  learns  to  correct  his  sanguine  views,  and 
prescribes  a  narrower  boundary  for  the  things  he  expects 
to  obtain.  The  realities  of  life  undeceive  him  at  last,  and 
there  steals  over  the  evening  of  his.  days  an  unwelcome 
conviction  of  the  vanity  of  human  hopes.  The  things  ho 
has  secured  are  not  the  things  he  expected.  He  sees  that 
a  Supreme  Power  has  been  Tising  him  for  unknown  ends, 
that  he  was  brought  into  the  world  without  his  own 
knowledge,  and  is  departing  from  it  against  his  own  will. 

Whoever  has  made  the  physical  and  intellectual  history 
of  individual  man  his  study,  will  be  prepared  to  admit  in 
it  fore-  what  a  surprising  manner  it  foreshadows  social 

sh.i.i..«s  history.  The  equilibrium  and  movement  of 
llfe'  humanity  are  altogether  physiological  pheno- 
mena. Yet  not  without  hesitation  may  such  an  opinion  be 
frankly  avowed,  since  it  is  offensive  to  the  pride,  and  to 
many  of  the  prejudices  and  interests  of  our  age.  An  author 


CH.  I.]  OF  NATURE  BY  LAW.  3 

•who  has  been  disposed  to  devote  many  years  to  the  labour 
of  illustrating  this  topic,  has  need  of  the  earnest  support 
of  all  who  prize  the  truth ;  and,  considering  the  extent 
and  profundity  of  his  subject,  his  work,  at  the  best,  must 
be  very  imperfect,  requiring  all  the  forbearance,  and  even 
the  generosity  of  criticism. 

In  the  intellectual  infancy  of  a  savage  state,  Man 
transfers  to  Nature  his  conceptions  of  himself,  First  opinions 
and,  considering  that  every  thing  he  does  is  of  savage  We. 
determined  by  his  own  pleasure,  regards  all  passing 
events  as  depending  on  the  arbitrary  volition  of  a  superior 
but  invisible  power.  He  gives  to  the  world  a  constitu- 
tion like  his  own.  His  tendency  is  necessarily  to  super- 
stition. Whatever  is  strange,  or  powerful,  or  vast,  im- 
presses his  imagination  with  dread.  Such  objects  are  only 
the  outward  manifestations  of  an  indwelling  spirit,  and 
therefore  worthy  of  his  veneration. 

After  Reason,  aided  by  Experience,  has  led  him  forth 
from  these  delusions  as  respects  surrounding  things,  he 
still  clings  to  his  original  ideas  as  respects  objects  far 
removed.  In  the  distance  and  irresistible  motions  of  the 
stars  he  finds  arguments  for  the  supernatural,  and  gives 
to  each  of  those  shining  bodies  an  abiding  and  controlling 
genius.  The  mental  phase  through  which  he  is  passing 
permits  him  to  believe  in  the  exercise  of  planetary 
influences  on  himself. 

But  as  reason  led  him  forth  from  fetichism,  so  in  due 
time  it  again  leads  him  forth  from  star-worship.  Fetici,ism 
Perhaps  not  without  regret  does  he  abandon  the  displaced  by 
mythological   forms  he  has  created ;    for,  long  st 
after  he  has  ascertained  that  the  planets  are  nothing  more 
than  shining  points,  without  any  perceptible  influence  on 
him,  he  still  venerates  the  genii  once  supposed  to  vivify 
them,  perhaps  even  he  exalts  them  into  immortal  gods. 

Philosophically  speaking,  he  is  exchanging  by  ascending 
degrees  his  primitive  doctrine  of  arbitrary  volition  for  the 
doctrine  of  law.  As  the  fall  of  a  stone,  the  flowing  of  a 
river,  the  movement  of  a  shadow,  the  rustling  of  a  leaf, 
have  been  traced  to  physical  causes,  to  like  causes  at  last 
are  traced  the  revolutions  of  the  stars.  In  events  and 


i  ON   THE   GOVERNMENT  [dl.  I. 

scenes  continually  increasing  in  greatness  and  grandeur, 
he  is  detecting  the  dominion  of  law.  The  goblins,  and 
The  idea  of  gen">  an<l  g0^8  wno  successively  extorted  his 
government  fear  and  veneration,  who  determined  events  by 
their  fitful  passions  or  whims,  are  at  last  dis- 
placed by  the  noble  conception  of  one  Almighty  Being, 
who  rules  the  universe  according  to  reason,  and  therefore 
according  to  law. 

In  this  manner  the  doctrine  of  government  by  law  is 
extended,  until  at  last  it  embraces  all  natural  events.  It 
was  thus  that,  hardly  two  centuries  ago,  that  doctrine 
gathered  immense  force  from  the  discovery  of  Newton  that 
its  appiica-  Kepler's  laws,  under  which  the  movements  of  the 
tion  to  the  planetary  bodies  are  executed,  issue  as  a  mathc- 
soiar  system.  j^fcJQa}  necessity  from  a  very  simple  material 
condition,  and  that  the  complicated  motions  of  the  solar 
system  cannot  be  other  than  they  are.  Few  of  those  who 
read  in  the  beautiful  geometry  of  the  '  Principia'  the  demon- 
stration of  this  fact,  saw  the  imposing  philosophical  con- 
sequences which  must  inevitably  follow  this  scientific 
discovery.  And  now  the  investigation  of  the  aspect  of 
the  skies  in  past  ages,  and  all  predictions  of  its  future, 
rest  essentially  upon  the  principle  that  no  arbitrary  voli- 
tion ever  intervenes,  the  gigantic  mechanism  moving 
impassively  in  accordance  with  a  mathematical  law. 

And  so  upon  the  earth,  the  more  perfectly  we  understand 
the  causes  of  present  events,  the  more  plainly  are  they 
seen  to  be  the  consequences  of  physical  conditions,  and 
Andtoterres-  therefore  the  results  of  law.  To  allude  to  one 
trial  events,  example  out  of  many  that  might  be  considered, 
the  winds,  how  proverbially  inconstant,  who  can  tell 
whence  they  come  or  whither  they  go !  If  any  thing 
bears  the  fitful  character  of  arbitrary  volition,  surely  it  is 
these.  But  we  deceive  ourselves  in  imagining  that  atmo- 
spheric events  are  fortuitous.  AVhere  shall  a  line  bo 
drawn  l>etween  that  eternal  trade-wind,  which,  originating 
in  well-understood  physical  causes,  sweeps,  like  the  breath 
of  Destiny,  slowly,  and  solemnly,  and  everlastingly  over 
the  Pacific  Ocean,  and  the  variable  gusts  into  which  it 
degenerates  in  more  northerly  and  southerly  regions — 
gusts  which  soem  to  come  without  any  cause,  and  to  pass 


CH.  I.]  OF  NATURE  BY   LAW.  5 

away  without  leaving  any  trace  ?  In  what  latitude  is  it 
that  the  domain  of  the  physical  ends,  and  that  of  the 
supernatural  begins  ? 

All  mundane  events  are  the  results  of  the  operation  of 
law.  Every  movement  in  the  skies  or  upon  the  earth 
proclaims  to  us  that  the  universe  is  under  government. 

But  if  we  admit  that  this  is  the  case,  from  the  mote 
that  floats  in  the  sunbeam  to  multiple  stars  revolving 
round  each  other,  are  we  willing  to  carry  our  principles  to 
their  consequences,  and  recognise  a  like  operation  of  law 
among  living  as  among  lifeless  things,  in  the  organic  as 
well  as  the  inorganic  world?  What  testimony  does 
physiology  offer  on  this  point  ? 

Physiology,  in  its  progress,  has  passed  through  the  same 
phases  as  physics.  Living  beings  have  been  considered 
as  beyond  the  power  of  external  influences,  and,  con- 
spicuously among  them,  Man  has  been  affirmed  And  to  the  or- 
to  be  independent  of  the  forces  that  rule  the  &nic  world- 
world  in  which  he  lives.  Besides  that  immaterial  prin- 
ciple, the  soul,  which  distinguishes  him  from  all  his 
animated  companions,  and  makes  him  a  moral  and  re- 
sponsible being,  he  has  been  feigned,  like  them,  to  possess 
another  immaterial  principle,  the  vital  agent,  which,  in  a 
way  of  its  own,  carries  forward  all  the  various  operations 
in  his  economy. 

But  when  it  was  discovered  that  the  heart  of  man  is 
constructed  upon  the  recognised  rules  of  hydraulics,  and 
with  its  great  tubes  is  furnished  with  common  mechanical 
contrivances,  valves ;  when  it  was  discovered  Especially  to 
that  the  eye  has  been  arranged  on  the  most  re-  man- 
fined  principles  of  optics,  its  cornea,  and  humours,  and 
lens  properly  converging  the  rays  to  form  an  image — its 
iris,  like  the  diaphragm  of  a  telescope  or  microscope,  shut- 
ting out  stray  light,  and  also  regulating  the  quantity 
admitted ;  when  it  was  discovered  that  the  ear  is  furnished 
with  the  means  of  dealing  with  the  three  characteristics 
of  sound — its  tympanum  for  intensity,  its  cochlea  for 
pitch,  its  semicircular  canals  for  quality ;  when  it  was 
seen  that  the  air  brought  into  the  great  air-passages  by 
the  descent  of  the  diaphragm,  calling  into  play  atmo- 
spheric pressure,  is  conveyed  upon  physical  principles  into 


6  OH   THE   GOVERNMENT  [CH.  I. 

the  ultimate  cells  of  the  lungs,  and  thence  into  the  blood, 
producing  chemical  changes  throughout  the  system,  disen- 
gaging heat,  and  permitting  all  the  functions  of  organic 
life  to  go  on  ;  when  these  facts  and  very  many  others  of 
a  like  kind  were  brought  into  prominence  by  modern 
physiology,  it  obviously  became  necessary  to  admit  that 
animated  beings  do  not  constitute  the  exception  once 
supposed,  and  that  organic  operations  are  the  result  of 
physical  agencies. 

If  thus,  in  the  recesses  of  the  individual  economy,  these 
natural  agents  bear  sway,  must  they  not  operate  in  the 
social  economy  too? 

Has  the  great  shadeless  desert  nothing  to  do  with  the 
in  social  as  habits  of  the  nomade  tribes  who  pitch  their  tents 
weiiasindi-  upon  it — the  fertile  plain  no  connection  with 
llle'  flocks  and  pastoral  life — the  mountain  fastnesses 
with  the  courage  that  has  so  often  defended  them — the  sea 
with  habits  of  adventure  ?  Indeed,  do  not  all  our  expecta- 
tions of  the  stability  of  social  institutions  rest  upon  our 
belief  in  the  stability  of  surrounding  physical  conditions  ? 
From  the  time  of  Bodin,  who  nearly  three  hundred  years 
ago  published  his  work  '  De  Republica,'  these  principles 
have  been  well  recognized  :  that  the  laws  of  Nature  cannot 
be  subordinated  to  the  will  of  Man,  and  that  government 
must  be  adapted  to  climate.  It  was  these  things  which 
led  him  to  the  conclusion  that  force  is  best  resorted  to  for 
northern  nations,  reason  for  the  middle,  and  superstition, 
for  the  southern. 

In  the  month  of  March  the  sun  crosses  the   equator, 

dispensing  his  rays  more  abundantly  over  our  northern 

hemisphere.     Following  in  his  train,  a  wave  of  verdure 

expands  towards  the  pole.    The  luxuriance  is  in 

Effects  of  the  ,.         ,      ,1        i       ri    ,     .-,•,.  nr,  .        i 

seasons  on  proportion  to  the  local  brilliancy.  1  he  animal 
animaUand  world  is  also  affected.  Pressed  forward,  or 
solicited  onward  by  the  warmth,  the  birds  of 
passage  commence  their  annual  migration,  keeping  pace 
with  the  developing  vegetation  beneath.  As  summer 
declines,  this  orderly  advance  of  light  and  life  is  followed 
by  an  orderly  retreat,  and  in  its  turn  the  southern  hemi- 
sphere presents  the  same  glorious  phenomenon.  Once 
every  year  the  life  of  the  earth  pulsates  ;  now  there  is  an 


CH.  I.]  OF  NATURE  BY  LAW.  7 

abounding  vitality,  now  a  desolation.  But  what  is  the 
cause  of  all  this?  It  is  only  mechanical.  The  earth's 
axis  of  rotation  is  inclined  to  the  plane  of  her  orbit  of 
revolution  round  the  sun. 

Let  that  wonderful  phenomenon  and  its  explanation  be 
a  lesson  to  us;  let  it  profoundly  impress  us  with  the 
importance  of  physical  agents  and  physical  laws.  They 
intervene  in  the  life  and  death  of  man  personally  and 
socially.  External  events  become  interwoven  in  our 
constitution;  their  periodicities  create  periodicities  in  us. 
Day  and  night  are  incorporated  in  our  waking  and 
sleeping ;  summer  and  winter  compel  us  to  exhibit  cycles 
in  our  life. 

They  who  have  paid  attention  to  the  subject  have  long 
ago  ascertained  that  the  possibility  of  human  individual 
existence  on  the  earth  depends  on  conditions  existence 
altogether  of  a  material  kind.  Since  it  is  only  physical  con- 
within  a  narrow  range  of  temperature  that  life  dit;ons- 
can  be  maintained,  it  is  needful  that  our  planet  should  be 
at  a  definite  mean  distance  from  the  source  of  light  and 
heat,  the  sun;  and  that  the  form  of  her  orbit  should  be 
so  little  eccentric  as  to  approach  closely  to  a  circle.  Jf 
her  mass  were  larger  or  less  than  it  is,  the  weight  of  all 
living  and  lifeless  things  on  her  surface  would  no  longer 
be  the  same ;  but  absolute  weight  is  one  of  the  primary 
elements  of  organic  construction.  A  change  in  the  time 
of  her  diurnal  rotation,  as  aifecting  the  length  of  the  day 
and  night,  must  at  once  be  followed  by  a  corresponding 
modification  of  the  periodicities  of  the  nervous  system  of 
animals ;  a  change  in  her  orbitual  translation  round  the 
sun,  as  determining  the  duration  of  the  year,  would,  in  like 
manner,  give  rise  to  a  marked  effect.  If  the  year  were 
shorter,  we  should  live  faster  and  die  sooner. 

In  the  present  economy  of  our  globe,  natural  agents  are 
relied  upon  as  the  means  of  regulation  and  of  Animal  and 
government.      Through   heat,   the   distribution  vegetable  life 

3     ,  f     ,1  .11         .     -i  Intel-balanced 

and   arrangement   ot   the  vegetable   tribes   are  by  material 
accomplished;    through  their  mutual  relations  conditions- 
with  the  atmospheric  air,  plants  and  animals  are  inter- 
balanced,  and  neither  permitted  to  obtain  a  superiority. 
Considering   the    magnitude   of    this    condition,    and   its 


8  ON   THE  GOVERNMENT  [CH.  I. 

necessity  to  general  life,  it  might  seem  worthy  of  inces- 
sant Divine  intervention,  yet  it  is  in  fact  accomplished 
automatically. 

Of  past  organic  history  the  same  remark  may  be  made. 
The  condensation  of  carbon  from  the  air,  and  its  inclusion 
in  the  strata,  constitute  the  chief  epoch  in  the  organic 
life  of  the  earth,  giving  a  possibility  for  the 
pwrances'and  appearance  of  the  hot-blooded  and  more  in- 
extinctjons  tellectual  animal  tribes.  That  great  event  was 
occasioned  by  the  influence  of  the  rays  of  the 
sun.  And  as  such  influences  have  thus  been  connected 
with  the  appearance  of  organisms,  so  likewise  have  they 
been  concerned  in  the  removal.  Of  the  myriads  of  species 
which  have  become  extinct,  doubiless  every  one  has  passed 
away  through  the  advent  of  material  conditions  incom- 
patible with  its  continuance.  Even  now,  a  fall  of  half-a- 
dozen  degret'S  in  the  mean  temperature  of  any  latitude 
would  occasion  the  vanishing  of  the  forms  of  wanner 
climates,  and  the  advent  of  those  of  the  colder.  An 
obscuration  of  the  rays  of  the  sun  for  a  few  years  would 
compel  a  redistribution  of  plants  and  animals  all  over  the 
earth ;  many  would  totally  disappear,  and  everywhere 
new  comers  would  be  seen. 

The  permanence  of  organic  forms  is  altogether  dependent 
n  on  the  invariability  of  the  material  conditions 

I V rmanence  i  •   i        i          i  •  • 

oforganisms  under  which  they  live.  Any  variation  therein, 
biltty'drc™0"  no  matter  how  insignificant  it  might  be,  would 
ternai  comiu  be  forthwith  followed  by  a  corresponding  vari- 
ation in  the  form.  The  present  invariability 
of  the  world  of  organization  is  the  direct  consequence  of 
the  physical  equilibrium,  and  so  it  will  continue  as  long 
as  the  me;in  temperature,  the  annual  supply  of  light,  the 
composition  of  the  air,  the  distribution  of  water,  oceanic 
and  atmospheric  currents,  and  other  such  agencies  remain 
unaltered  ;  but  if  any  one  of  these,  or  of  a  hundred  other 
incidents  that  might  be  mentioned,  should  suffer  modifi- 
cation, in  an  instant  the  fanciful  doctrine  of  the  immu- 
tability of  species  would  be  brought  to  its  true  value. 
The  organic  world  appears  to  be  in  repose,  because  natural 
influences  have  reached  an  equilibrium.  A  marble  may 
remain  for  ever  motionless  upon  a  level  table  ;  but  let  the 


CH.  I.]  OF   NATURE  BY   LAW.  9 

surface  be  a  little  inclined,  and  the  marble  will  quickly 
run  off.  What  should  we  say  of  him,  who,  contemplating 
it  in  its  state  of  rest,  asserted  that  it  was  impossible  for  it 
ever  to  move  ? 

They  who  can  see  no  difference  between  the  race-horse 
and  the  Shetland  pony,  the  bantam  and  the  Shanghai  fowl, 
the  greyhound  and  the  poodle  dog,  who  altogether  deny 
that  impressions  can  be  made  on  species,  and  see  in  the  long 
succession  of  extinct  forms,  the  ancient  existence  of  which 
they  must  acknowledge,  the  evidences  of  a  continuous  anc? 
creative  intervention,  forget  that  mundane  effects  „ 

,  ,    ,.     .  .  c  -11        •  >    Orderly  so 

observedennite  sequences,  event  following  event  quence  of  con- 
in  the  necessity  of  the  case,  and  thus  constitu-  f^gJjVy  or^ 
ting  a  chain,  each  link  of  which  hangs  on  a  pre-  deriy  organic 
ceding,  and  holds  a  succeeding  one.  Physical  chanses- 
influences  thus  following  one  another,  and  bearing  to  each 
other  the  inter-relation  of  cause  and  effect,  stand  in  their 
totality  to  the  whole  organic  world  as  causes,  it  repre- 
senting the  effect,  and  the  order  of  succession  existing 
among  them  is  perpetuated  or  embodied  in  it.  Thus,  in 
those  ancient  times  to  which  we  have  referred,  the  sun- 
light acting  on  the  leaves  of  plants  disturbed  the  chemical 
constitution  of  the  atmosphere,  gave  rise  to  the  accumu- 
lation of  a  more  energetic  element  therein,  diminished  the 
mechanical  pressure,  and  changed  the  rate  of  evaporation 
from  the  sea,  a  series  of  events  following  one  another  so 
necessarily  that  we  foresee  their  order,  and,  in  their  turn, 
making  an  impression  on  the  vegetable  and  animal 
economy.  The  natural  influences,  thus  varying  in  an 
orderly  way,  controlled  botanical  events,  and  made  them 
change  correspondingly.  The  orderly  procedure  of  the 
one  must  be  imitated  in  the  orderly  procedure  of  the  other. 
And  the  same  holds  good  in  the  animal  kingdom;  the 
recognized  variation  in  the  material  conditions  is  copied  in 
the  organic  effects,  in  vigour  of  motion,  energy  of  life', 
intellectual  power. 

AVhen,  therefore,  we  notice  such  orderly  successions,  we 
must  not  at  once  assign  them  to  a  direct  intervention,  the 
issue  of  wise  predeterminations  of  a  voluntary  agent ;  we 
must  first  satisfy  ourselves  how  far  they  are  dependent  on 
mundane  or  material  conditions,  occurring  in  a  definite 

2* 


10  ON  THE  GOVERNMENT  [CU.  1. 

and  necessary  series,  ever  bearing  in  mind  the  important 
principle  that  an  orderly  sequence  of  inorganic  events  ne- 
cessarily involves  an  orderly  and  corresponding  progression 
of  organic  life. 

To  this  doctrine  of  the  control  of  physical  agencies  over 
Universal  organic  forms  I  acknowledge  no  exception,  not 
control  of  even  in  the  case  of  man.  The  varied  aspects  he 
agentTover  presents  in  diiferent  countries  are  the  necessary 
organisms.  consequences  of  those  influences. 

He  who  advocates  the  doctrine  of  the  unity  of  the 
human  race  is  plainly  forced  to  the  admission  of  the 
absolute  control  of  such  agents  over  the  organization  of 
man,  since  the  originally-created  type  has  been  brought  to 
exhibit  very  different  aspects  in  different  parts  of  the 
world,  apparently  in  accordance  with  the  climate  and  other 
purely  material  circumstances.  To  those  circumstances  it 
is  scarcely  necessary  to  add  manner  of  life,  for  that  itself 
The  case  of  arises  from  them.  The  doctrine  of  unity  de- 
ma11-  mands  as  its  essential  postulate  an  admission  of 
the  paramount  control  of  physical  agents  over  the  human 
aspect  and  organization,  else  how  could  it  be  that,  pro- 
ceeding from  the  same  stock,  all  shades  of  complexion  in 
the  skin,  and  variety  in  the  form  of  the  skull,  should  have 
arisen?  Experience  assures  us  that  these  are  changes 
assumed  only  by  slow  degrees,  and  not  with  abruptness ; 
they  como  as  a  cumulative  effect.  They  plainly  enforce 
the  doctrine  that  national  type  is  not  to  be  regarded  as  a 
definite  or  final  thing,  a  seeming  immobility  in  this 
particular  being  due  to  the  attainment  of  a  correspondence 
with  the  conditions  to  which  the  type  is  exposed.  Let 
those  conditions  be  changed,  and  it  begins  forthwith  to 
change  too.  I  repeat  it,  therefore,  that  he  who  receives 
the  doctrine  of  the  unity  of  the  human  race,  must  also 
accept,  in  view  of  the  present  state  of  humanity  on  various 
parts  of  the  surface  of  our  planet,  its  necessary  postulate, 
the  complete  control  of  physical  agents,  whether  natural, 
or  arising  artificially  from  the  arts  of  civilization  and  the 
secular  progress  of  nations  toward  a  correspondence  with 
the  conditions  to  which  they  are  exposed. 

To  the  same  conclusion  also  must  he  be  brought  who 
advocates  the  origin  of  different  races  from  different 


CH.  I.]  OF  NATURE  BY  LAW.  11 

centres.  It  comes  to  the  same  thing,  whichever  of  those 
doctrines  we  adopt.  Each  brings  us  to  the  admission  of 
the  transitory  nature  of  typical  forms,  to  their  trans- 
mutations and  extinctions. 

Variations  in  the  aspect  of  men  are  best  seen  when  an 
examination  is  made  of  nations  arranged  in  a  northerly 
and  southerly  direction;  the  result  is  such  as  Human  varia- 
would  ensue  to  an  emigrant  passing  slowly  along  tions- 
a  meridional  track ;  but  the  case  would  be  quite  different 
if  the  movement  were  along  a  parallel  of  latitude.  In 
this  latter  direction  the  variations  of  climate  are  far  less 
marked,  and  depend  much  more  on  geographical  than  on 
astronomical  causes.  In  emigrations  of  this  kind  there  is 
never  that  rapid  change  of  aspect,  complexion,  and  intel- 
lectual power  which  must  occur  in  the  other.  Thus, 
though  the  mean  temperature  of  Europe  increases  from 
Poland  to  France,  chiefly  through  the  influence  of  the 
great  Atlantic  current  transferring  heat  from  the  Gulf  of 
Mexico  and  tropical  ocean,  that  rise  is  far  less  than  would 
be  encountered  on  passing  through  the  same  distance  to 
the  south.  By  the  arts  of  civilization  man  can  much  more 
easily  avoid  the  difficulties  arising  from  variations  along  a 
parallel  of  latitude  than  those  upon  a  meridian,  for  the 
simple  reason  that  in  that  case  those  variations  are  less. 

But  it  is  not  only  complexion,  development  of  the  brain, 
and,  therefore,  intellectual  power,  which  are  thus  affected. 
With  difference  of  climate  there  must  be  differences  of 
manners  and  customs,  that  is,  differences  in  the  modes  of 
civilization.  These  are  facts  which  deserve  our  Tj,eir  pouti- 
most  serious  attention,  since  such  differences  are  cal  result, 
inevitably  connected  with  political  results.  If  homogene- 
ousness  be  an  element  of  strength,  an  empire  that  lies 
east  and  west  must  be  more  powerful  than  one  that  lies 
north  and  south.  I  cannot  but  think  that  this  was  no 
inconsiderable  cause  of  the  greatness  and  permanence  of 
Eome.  and  that  it  lightened  the  task  of  the  emperors,  often 
hard  enough,  in  government.  There  is  a  natural  tendency  to 
homogeneousness  in  the  east  and  west  direction,  a  tendency 
to  diversity  and  antagonism  in  the  north  and  south,  and 
hence  it  is  that  government  under  the  latter  circumstances 
will  always  demand  the  highest  grade  of  statesmanship. 


12  ON   THE   GOVERNMENT  [ctl.  I. 

The  transitional  forms  which  an  animal  typo  is  capable 
of  producing  on  a  passage  north  and  south  are  much  more 
numerous  than  those  it  can  produce  on  a  passage  east  and 
west.  These,  though  they  are  truly  transitional  as 
Nature  of  respects  the  type  from  which  they  have  pro- 
transitional  ceeded,  are  permanent  as  regards  the  locality  in 
which  they  occur,  being,  in  fact,  the  incarnation 
of  its  physical  influences.  As  long,  therefore,  as  those  in- 
fluences remain  without  change  the  form  that  has  been 
produced  will  last  without  any  alteration.  For  such  a 
permanent  form  in  the  case  of  man  we  may  adopt  the 
designation  of  an  ethnical  element. 

An  ethnical  element  is  therefore  necessarily  of  a  de- 
,  pendent  nature;  its  durability  arises  from  its 

Conditions  of     J       c  ,  .   ,     J. 

change  in  an    perfect  correspondence   with   its   environment, 
ethntaaieie-     Whatever  can  affect  that  correspondence   will 

touch  its  life. 

Such  considerations  carry  us  from  individual  man  to 
groups  of  men  or  nations.  There  is  a  progess  for  races  of 
men  as  well  marked  as  the  progress  of  one  man.  There 

are  thoughts  and  actions  appertaining  to  specific 
natkmTii'vfe     periods  in  the  one  case  as  in  the  other.      With 
thatofmdivi-  Out  difficulty  we  affirm  of  a  given  act  that  it 

duals.  .    •        .  •  •    j         \\r  •         .v 

appertains  to  a  given  period.  We  recognize  the 
noisy  sports  of  boyhood,  the  business  application  of  matu- 
rity, the  feeble  garrulity  of  old  age.  We  express  our 
surprise  when  we  witness  actions  unsuitable  to  the  epoch 
of  life.  As  it  is  in  this  respect  in  the  individual,  so  it  is 
in  the  nation.  The  march  of  individual  existence  shadows 
forth  the  march  of  race-existence,  being,  indeed,  its 
representative  on  a  little  scale. 

Groups  of  men,  or  nations,  are  disturbed  by  the  same 
accidents,  or  complete  the  same  cycle  as  the  individual. 
„  ...  Some  scarcely  pass  beyond  infancy,  some  are 

Communities,      ,  ,          J    •  ,,  J  j-         f 

like  families,  destroyed  on  a  sudden,  some  die  of  mere  old 
bcnn'n  dTffcr-  age-  ^n  ^l*8  confusion  of  events,  it  might  j-eem 
ent  stages  of  altogether  hopeless  to  disentangle  the  law  which 
is  guiding  them  all,  and  demonstrate  it  clearly. 
Of  such  groups,  each  may  exhibit,  at  the  same  moment, 
an  advance  to  a  different  stage,  just  as  we  see  in  the  same 
family  the  young,  the  middle-aged,  the  old.  It  is  thus 


CH.  I.]  OF  NATURE  BY   LAW.  13 

that  Europe  shows  in  its  different  parts  societies  in  very 
different  states — here  the  restless  civilization  of  France 
and  England,  there  the  contentment  and  inferiority  of 
Lapland.  This  commingling  might  seem  to  render  it 
difficult  to  ascertain  the  true  movement  of  the  whole 
continent,  and  still  more  so  for  distant  and  successive 
periods  of  time.  In  each  nation,  moreover,  the  con- 
temporaneously different  classes,  the  educated  and  illite- 
rate, the  idle  and  industrious,  the  rich  and  poor,  the 
intelligent  and  superstitious,  represent  different  con- 
temporaneous stages  of  advancement.  One  may  have 
made  a  great  progress,  another  scarcely  have  advanced  at 
all.  How  shall  we  ascertain  the  real  state  of  the  case? 
Which  of  these  classes  shall  we  regard  as  the  truest  and 
most  perfect  type  ? 

Though  difficult,  this  ascertainment  is  not  impossible. 
The  problem  is  to  be  dealt  with  in  the  same  manner  that 
we  should  estimate  a  family  in  which  there  are  persons  of 
every  condition  from  infancy  to  old  age.  Each  member 
of  it  tends  to  pursue  a  definite  course,  though  some,  cut  off 
in  an  untimely  manner,  may  not  complete  it.  One  may  be 
enfeebled  by  accident,  another  by  disease ;  but  each,  if 
his  past  and  present  circumstances  be  fully  considered, 
will  illustrate  the  nature  of  the  general  movement  that 
all  are  making.  To  demonstrate  that  movement  most  satis- 
factorily, certain  members  of  such  a  family  suit  our  purpose 
better  than  others,  because  they  more  closely  represent 
its  type,  or  have  advanced  farthest  in  their  career. 

So  in  a  family  of  many  nations,  some  are  more  mature, 
some  less  advanced,  some  die  in  early  life,  some  are  worn 
out  by  extreme  old  age ;  all  show  special  peculiarities. 
There  are  distinctions  among  kinsmen,  whether  The  inteiiec- 
we  consider  them  intellectually  or  corporeally.  tual  class  the 
Every  one,  nevertheless,  illustrates  in  his  own  sentativ'e'ofa 
degree  the  march  that  all  are  making,  but  some  commu"i'y- 
do  it  more,  some  less  completely.  The  leading,  the  in- 
tellectual class,  is  hence  always  the  true  representative  of 
a  state.  It  has  passed  step  by  step  through  the  lower 
fctages,  and  has  made  the  greatest  advance. 

In  an  individual,  life  is  maintained  only  by  the  pro- 
duction and  destruction  of  organic  particles,  no  portion  of 


14  ON  THE  GOVERNMENT  [CH.  I. 

the  system  being  in  a  state  of  immobility,  but  each 
interstitial  displaying  incessant  change.  Death  is,  there- 
changeand  fore,  necessarily  the  condition  of  life,  and  the 

death  the  con-  .    •* ,       -  .  _  ._ 

dition  of  indi-  more  energetic  the  function  of  a  part — or,  it  we 
viduai  life.  compare  different  animals  with  one  another — 
the  more  active  the  mode  of  existence,  correspondingly, 
the  greater  the  waste  and  the  more  numerous  the  deaths 
of  the  interstitial  constituents. 

To  the  death  of  particles  in  the  individual  answers  the 
Particles  in  death  of  persons  in  the  nation,  of  which  they 
the  individual  are  the  integral  constituents.  In  both  cases,  in 
persons  in  the  a  period  of  time  quite  inconsiderable,  a  total 
change  is  accomplished  without  the  entire  system, 
which  is  the  sum  of  these  separate  parts,  losing  its  iden- 
tity. Each  particle  or  each  person  comes  into  existence, 
discharges  an  appropriate  duty,  and  then  passes  away, 
perhaps  unnoticed.  The  production,  continuance,  and 
death  of  an  organic  molecule  in  the  person  answers  to  the 
production,  continuance,  and  death  of  a  person  in  the 
nation.  Nutrition  and  decay  in  one  case  are  equivalent  to 
well-being  and  transformation  in  the  other. 

In  the  same  manner  that  the  individual  is  liable  to 
changes  through  the  action  of  external  agencies, 

Epochs  in  3      ee  •   A  AU  •    j- 

national  the  and  offers  no  resistance  thereto,  nor  any  indiea- 
^"^  asi  V'rin"  tion  of  the  possession  of  a  physiological  inertia, 

dividual  Ijf;.      ,  ,       .     J  1  .  •  ... 

but  submits  at  once  to  any  impression,  so  like- 
wise it  is  with  aggregates  of  men  constituting  nations. 
A  national  type  pursues  its  way  physically  and  in- 
tellectually through  changes  and  developments  answering 
to  those  of  the  individual,  and  being  represented  by 
Infancy,  Childhood,  Youth,  Manhood,  Old  Age,  and  Death 
respectively. 

But  this  orderly  process  may  be  disturbed  exteriorly  or 
Disturbance  interiorly.  If  from  its  original  seats  a  whole 
throuRhemi-  nation  were  transposed  to  some  new  abode,  in 

which  the  climate,  the  seasons,  the  aspect  of 
nature  were  altogether  different,  it  would  appear  spon- 
taneously in  all  its  parts  to  commence  a  movement  to 
come  into  harmony  with  the  new  conditions — a  movement 
of  a  secular  nature,  and  implying  the  consumption  of  many 
generations  for  its  accomplishment.  During  such  a  period 


CH.  I.]  OF  NATURE   BY   LAW.  15 

of  transmutation  there  would,  of  course,  be  an  increased 
waste  of  life,  a  risk,  indeed,  of  total  disappearance  or 
national  death ;  but  the  change  once  completed,  the 
requisite  correspondence  once  attained,  things  would  go 
forward  again  in  an  orderly  manner  on  the  basis  of  the 
new  modification  that  had  been  assumed.  When  the 
change  to  be  accomplished  is  very  profound,  involving 
extensive  anatomical  alterations  not  merely  in  the  appear- 
ance of  the  skin,  but  even  in  the  structure  of  the  skull, 
long  periods  of  time  are  undoubtedly  required,  and  many 
generations  of  individuals  are  consumed. 

Or,  by  interior  disturbance,  particularly  by  blood  ad' 
mixture,  with  more  rapidity  may  a  national  And  through 
type  be  affected,  the  result  plainly  depending  Wood  admix- 
on  the  extent  to  which  admixture  has  taken  u 
place.  This  is  a  disturbance  capable  of  mathematical 
computation.  If  the  blood  admixture  be  only  of  limited 
amount,  and  transient  in  its  application,  its  effect  will 
sensibly  disappear  in  no  very  great  period  of  time,  though 
never,  perhaps,  in  absolute  reality.  This  accords  with 
the  observation  of  philosophical  historians,  who  agree  in 
the  conclusion  that  a  small  tribe  intermingling  with  a 
larger  one  will  only  disturb  it  in  a  temporary  manner, 
and,  after  the  course  of  a  few  years,  the  effect  will  cease  to 
be  perceptible.  Nevertheless,  the  influence  must  really 
continue  much  longer  than  is  outwardly  apparent ;  and 
the  result  is  the  same  as  when,  in  a  liquid,  a  drop  of  some 
other  kind  is  placed,  and  additional  quantities  of  the  first 
liquid  then  successively  added.  Though  it  might  have 
been  possible  at  first  to  detect  the  adulteration  without 
trouble,  it  becomes  every  moment  less  and  less  possible  to 
do  so,  and  before  long  it  cannot  be  done  at  all.  But  the 
drop  is  as  much  present  at  last  as  it  was  at  first :  it  is 
merely  masked  ;  its  properties  overpowered. 

Considering  in  this  manner  the  contamination  of  a 
numerous  nation,  a  trifling  amount  of  foreign  blood  ad- 
mixture would  appear  to  be  indelible,  and  the  disturbance, 
at  any  moment,  capable  of  computation  by  the  ascertained 
degree  of  dilution  that  has  taken  place.  But  it  must  not 
be  forgotten  that  there  is  another  agency  at  work, 
energetically  tending  to  bring  about  homogeneity :  it 


16  ON    THE   GOVERNMENT  [CH.  I. 

is  the  influence  of  external  physical  conditions.  The 
intrusive  adulterating  element  possesses  in  itself  no 
physiological  inertia,  but  as  quickly  as  may  be  is  brought 
into  correspondence  with  the  new  circumstances  to  which 
it  is  exposed,  herein  running  in  the  same  course  as  the 
element  with  which  it  had  mingled  had  itself  antecedently 
gone  over. 

National  homogeneity  is  thus  obviously  secured  by 
the  operation  of  two  distinct  agencies :  the  first,  gradual 
but  inevitable  dilution ;  the  second,  motion  to  come  into 
harmony  with  the  external  natural  state.  The  two 
conspire  in  their  effects. 

We  must  therefore  no  longer  regard  nations  or  groups 
of  men  as  offering  a  permanent  picture.  Human  affairs 
Secular  vana-  mus*  he  looked  upon  as  in  continuous  move- 
tionsof  ment,  not  wandering  in  an  arbitrary  manner 
here  and  there,  but  proceeding  in  a  perfectly 
definite  course.  Whatever  may  be  the  present  state,  it  is 
altogether  transient.  All  systems  of  civil  life  are  there- 
fore necessarily  ephemeral.  Time  brings  new  external 
conditions ;  the  manner  of  thought  is  modified ;  with 
thought,  action.  Institutions  of  all  kinds  must  hence 
participate  in  this  fleeting  nature,  and,  though  they  may 
have  allied  themselves  to  political  power,  and  gathered 
therefrom  the  means  of  coercion,  their  permanency  is  but 
little  improved  thereby ;  for,  sooner  or  later,  the  popu- 
lation on  whom  they  have  been  imposed,  following 
the  external  variations,  spontaneously  outgrows 

Their  institu-    .,  ,     .,     •  I,  r      i     .,  *i 

tionsmust  them,  and  their  nun,  though  it  may  have  been 
correspond-  delayed,  is  none  the  less  certain.  For  the 

ingly  change.  *  ,.  ,  .     .  .    .. 

permanency  ot  any  such  system  it  is  essentially 
necessary  that  it  should  include  within  its  own  organiza- 
tion a  law  of  change,  and  not  of  change  only,  but  change 
in  the  right  direction — the  direction  in  which  the  society 
interested  is  about  to  pass.  It  is  in  an  oversight  of  this  last 
essential  condition  that  wo  find  an  explanation  of  the 
failure  of  so  many  such  institutions.  Too  commonly  do 
we  believe  that  the  affairs  of  men  are  determined  by  a 
spontaneous  action  or  free  will ;  we  keep  that  overpower- 
ing influence  which  really  controls  them  in  the  back- 
ground. In  individual  life  we  also  accept  a  like  deception, 


CH.  I.]  OF  NATURE   BY   LAW.  1  7 

living  in  the  belief  that  every  thing  we  do  is  determined 
by  the  volition  of  ourselves  or  of  those  around  us  ;  nor  is 
it  until  the  close  of  our  days  that  we  discern  how  great  is 
the  illusion,  and  that  we  have  been  swimming — playing 
and  struggling— in  a  stream  which,  in  spite  of  all  our 
voluntary  motions,  has  silently  and  resistlessly  borne  us  to 
a  predetermined  shore. 

In  the  foregoing  pages  I  have  been  tracing  analogies 
between  the  life  of  individuals  and  that  of  nations.  There 
is  yet  one  point  more. 

Nations,  like  individuals,  die.  Their  birth  presents  an 
ethnical  element ;  their  death,  which  is  the  most  The  death  of 
solemn  event  that  we  can  contemplate,  may  uations- 
arise  from  interior  or  from  external  causes.  Empires  are 
only  sand-hills  in  the  hour-glass  of  Time ;  they  crumble 
spontaneously  away  by  the  process  of  their  own  growth. 

A  nation,  like  a  man,  hides  from  itself  the  contempla- 
tion of  its  final  day.  It  occupies  itself  with  expedients 
for  prolonging  its  present  state.  It  frames  laws  and 
constitutions  under  the  delusion  that  they  will  last,  for- 
getting that  the  condition  of  life  is  change.  Very  able 
modern  statesmen  consider  it  to  be  the  grand  object  of 
their  art  to  keep  things  as  they  are,  or  rather  as  they 
were.  But  the  human  race  is  not  at  rest ;  and  bands  with 
which,  for  a  moment,  it  may  be  restrained,  break  all  the 
more  violently  the  longer  they  hold.  No  man  can  stop 
the  march  of  destiny.. 

Time,  to  the  nation  as  to  the   individual,  is  nothing 
absolute ;  its  duration  depends  on  the  rate  of  There  is  no_ 
thought  and  feeling.     For  the  same  reason  that  thing  absolute 
to  the  child  the  year  is  actually  longer  than  to  in 
the  adult,  the  life  of  a  nation  may  be  said  to  be  no  longer 
than  the  life  of  a  person,  considering  the  manner  in  which 
its  affairs   are   moving.     There  is  a  variable  velocity  of 
existence,  though  the  lapses  of  time  may  be  equable. 

The  origin,  existence,  and  death  of  nations  depend  thus 
on  physical  influences,  which  are  themselves  the  Nations  are 
result   of  immutable   laws.     Nations   are   only  ««niy  transt- 
transitional   forms   of  humanity.      They   must  tio"alf< 
undergo  obliteration  as  do  the  transitional  forms  offered 
by  the  animal  series.     There  is  no  more  an  immortality 


18  OX   THE  GOVERNMENT  [CH.  I. 

for  them  than  there  is  an  immobility  for  an  embryo  in 
any  one  of  the  manifold  forms  passed  through  in  its 
progress  of  development. 

The  life  of  a  nation  thus  flows  in  a  regular  sequence, 
determined  by  invariable  law,  and  hence,  in  estimating 
different  nations,  we  must  not  be  deceived  by  the  casual 
Their  course  aspect  they  present.  The  philosophical  corn- 
is  ever  ad-  parison  is  made  by  considering  their  entire 

vancing,  _  ,          -  j 

never  retro-  manner  of  career  or  cycle  ot  progress,  and  not 
grade.  their  momentary  or  transitory  state.  Though 

they  may  encounter  disaster,  their  absolute  course  can 
never  be  retrograde ;  it  is  always  onward,  even  if  tending 
to  dissolution.  It  is  as  with  the  individual,  who  is 
equally  advancing  in  infancy,  in  maturity,  in  old  age. 
Pascal  was  more  than  justified  in  his  assertion  that  "  the 
entire  succession  of  men,  through  the  whole  course  of  ages, 
must  be  regarded  as  one  man,  always  living  and  inces- 
santly learning."  In  both  cases,  the  manner  of  advance, 
though  it  may  sometimes  be  unexpected,  can  never  bo 
abrupt.  At  each  stage  events  and  ideas  emerge  which 
not  only  necessarily  owe  their  origin  to  preceding  events 
and  ideas,  but  extend  far  into  the  future  and  influence  it. 
As  these  are  crowded  together,  or  occur  more  widely 
Variable  ra-  aPar*,  national  life,  like  individual,  shows  a 
pidity  of  variable  rapidity,  depending  upon  the  intensity 
national  life.  of  t}lougnt  &n&  action.  But,  no  matter  how 
great  that  energy  may  be,  or  with  what  rapidity  modi- 
fications may  take  place— since  events  are  emerging  as 
consequences  of  preceding  events,  and  ideas  from  preceding 
ideas  —  in  the  midst  of  the  most  violent  intellectual 
oscillations,  a  discerning  observer  will  never  fail  to  detect 
that  there  exists  a  law  of  continuous  variation  of  human 
opinions. 

In  the  examination  of  the  progress  of  Europe  on  which 
plan  of  this  we  now  enter,  it  is,  of  course,  to  intellectual 
phenomena  that  we  must,  for  the  most  part, 
refer ;  material  aggrandisement  and  political  power  offering 
us  less  important  though  still  valuable  indications,  and 
serving  our  purpose  rather  in  a  corroborative  way.  There 
are  five  intellectual  manifestations  to  which  we  may 
resort — philosophy,  science,  literature,  religion,  govern- 


CH.  I.]  OF  NATURE  BY  LAW.  19 

ment.  Our  obvious  course  is,  first,  to  study  the  progress 
of  that  member  of  the  European  family,  the 
eldest  in  point  of  advancement,  and  to  endeavour  among°Kuro- 
to  ascertain  the  characteristics  of  its  mental  ^"g0011111"1" 
unfolding.  We  may  reasonably  expect  that  the 
younger  members  of  the  family,  more  or  less  distinctly, 
will  offer  us  illustrations  of  the  same  mode  of  advance- 
ment that  we  shall  thus  find  for  Greece ;  and  that  the 
whole  continent,  which  is  the  sum  of  these  different 
parts,  will,  in  its  secular  progress,  comport  itself  in  like 
manner. 

Of  the  early  condition  of  Europe,  since  we  have  to 
consider  it  in  its  prehistoric  times,  our  information  must 
necessarily  be  imperfect.  Perhaps,  however,  we  may  be 
disposed  to  accept  that  imperfection  as  a  sufficient  token 
of  its  true  nature.  Since  history  can  offer  us  no  aid,  our 
guiding  lights  must  be  comparative  theology  and  com- 
parative philology.  Proceeding  from  those  times, 
we  shall,  in  detail,  examine  the  intellectual  or  Ourinvestiga- 
philosophical  movement  first  exhibited  in  Greece,  lo^einteUec- 
endeavouring  to  ascertain  its  character  at  sue-  tuai,andcom- 

,       ,         ,  .     ,  ~     .        mancingwitb 

cessive   epochs,   and   thereby  to  judge    of   its  Greece. 

complete  nature.     Fortunately  for  our  purpose, 

the  information   is   here  sufficient,  both   in  amount  and 

distinctness.     It  then  remains  to  show  that  the  mental 

movement  of  the  whole  continent  is  essentially 

of  the  same  kind,  though,  as  must  necessarily  be  wre°pass  to  the 

the  case,  it  is  spread  over  far  longer  periods  of  examination 

i       •  MI  j.1      v     f         J    of  a11  ^urope 

time.     Our  conclusions  will  constantly  be  tound 
to  gather  incidental  support  and  distinctness  from  illustra- 
tions presented  by  the  aged  populations  of  Asia,  and  the 
aborigines  of  Africa  and  America. 

The  intellectual  progress  of  Europe  being  of  a  nature 
answering  to  that  observed  in  the  case  of  Greece,  „,    „ 

,    .,  .     °.      ,.  -i     .         -i-i       ,1      ,       r,  •-!•     The  five  ages 

and  this,  in  its  turn,  being  like  that  ot  an  indi-  of  European 
vidual,  we   may  conveniently  separate   it   into  hfe- 
arbitrary  periods,  sufficiently  distinct  from  one  another, 
though  imperceptibly  merging  into  each  other.      To  these 
successive  periods  I  shall  give  the  titles  of — 1,  the  Age  of 
Credulity ;  2,  the  Age  of  Inquiry ;  3,  the  Age  of  Faith ; 
4,  the  Age   of  Eeason ;  5,  the  Age  of  Decrepitude ;  and 


20  OX   THE  GOVERNMENT  [CH.  I. 

shall  use  these  designations  in  the  division  of  my  subject 
in  its  several  chapters. 

From  the  possibility  of  thus  regarding  the  progress  of 
a  continent  in  definite  and  successive  stages,  answering 
respectively  to  the  periods  of  individual  life — infancy, 
childhood,  youth,  maturity,  old  age — we  may  gather  an 
instructive  lesson.  It  is  the  same  that  we  have  learned 
from  inquiries  respecting  the  origin,  maintenance,  distribu- 
tion, and  extinction  of  animals  and  plants,  their  balancing 
against  each  other ;  from  the  variations  of  aspect  and  form 
of  an  individual  man  as  determined  by  climate ;  from  his 
social  state,  whether  in  repose  or  motion  ;  from  the  secu- 
The  world  is  lar  variations  of  his  opinions,  and  the  gradual 
ruled  by  law.  dominion  of  reason  over  society :  this  lesson  is, 
that  the  government  of  the  world  is  accomplished  by 
immutable  law. 

Such  a  conception  commends  itself  to  the  intellect  of 
man  by  its  majestic  grandeur.  It  makes  him  discern  the 
eternal  in  the  vanishing  of  present  events  and  through 
the  shadows  of  time.  From  the  life,  the  pleasures,  the 
sufferings  of  humanity,  it  points  to  the  impassive ;  from 
our  wishes,  wants,  and  woes,  to  the  inexorable.  Leaving 
the  individual  beneath  the  eye  of  Providence,  it  shows 
society  under  the  finger  of  law.  And  the  laws  of  Nature 
never  vary ;  in  their  application  they  never  hesitate  nor 
are  wanting. 

But  in  thus  ascending  to  primordial  laws,  and  asserting 
their  immutability,  universality,  and  paramount  control  in 
the  government  of  this  world,  there  is  nothing  inconsistent 
And  yet  there  with  the  free  action  of  man.  The  appearance 
is free-wiii  for  of  things  depends  altogether  on  the  point  of 
view  we  occupy.  He  who  is  immersed  in  the 
turmoil  of  a  crowded  city  sees  nothing  but  the  acts  of 
men,  and,  if  he  formed  his  opinion  from  his  experience 
alone,  must  conchide  that  the  course  of  events  altogether 
depends  on  the  uncertainties  of  human  volition.  ]>ut  he 
who  ascends  to  a  sufficient  elevation  loses  sight  of  the 
passing  conflicts,  and  no  longer  hears  the  contentions. 
He  discovers  that  the  importance  of  individual  action  is 
diminishing,  as  the  panorama  beneath  him  is  extending. 


CTI.  I.]  OF  NATURE  BY   LAW.  21 

And  if  he  could  attain  to  the  truly  philosophical,  the 
general  point  of  view,  disengaging  himself  from  all  ter- 
restrial influences  and  entanglements,  rising  high  enough 
to  see  the  whole  globe  at  a  glance,  his  acutest  vision  would 
fail  to  discover  the  slightest  indication  of  man,  his  free- 
will, or  his  works.  In  her  resistless,  onward  sweep,  in  the 
clock-like  precision  of  her  daily  and  nightly  revolution,  in 
the  well-known  pictured  forms  of  her  continents  and  seas, 
now  no  longer  dark  and  and  doubtful,  but  shedding  forth 
a  planetary  light,  well  might  he  ask  what  had  become  of 
all  the  aspirations  and  anxieties,  the  pleasures  and  agony 
of  life.  As  the  voluntary  vanished  from  his  sight,  and 
the  irresistible  remained,  and  each  moment  became  more 
and  more  distinct,  well  might  he  incline  to  disbelieve  his 
own  experience,  and  to  question  whether  the  seat  of  so 
much  undying  glory  could  be  the  place  of  so  much  human 
uncertainty,  whether  beneath  the  vastness,  energy,  and 
immutable  course  of  a  moving  world,  there  lay  concealed 
the  feebleness  and  imbecility  of  man.  Yet  it  is  none  the  less 
true  that  these  contradictory  conditions  co-exist — Free-will 
and  Fate,  Uncertainty  and  Destiny.  It  is  only  the  point 
of  view  that  has  changed,  but  on  that  how  much  has 
depended !  A  little  nearer  we  gather  the  successive  ascer- 
tainments of  human  inquiry,  a  little  further  off  we  realize 
the  panoramic  vision  of  the  Deity.  A  Hindu  philosopher 
has  truly  remarked,  that  he  who  stands  by  the  banks  of 
a  flowing  stream  sees,  in  their  order,  the  various  parts  as 
thcv  successively  glide  by,  but  he  who  is  placed  on  an 
exalted  station  views,  at  a  glance,  the  whole  as  a 
motionless  silvery  thread  among  the  fields.  To  the  one 
there  is  the  accumulating  experience  and  knowledge  of 
man  in  time,  to  the  other  there  is  the  instantaneous  the 
unsuccessive  knowledge  of  God. 

Is   there   an   object   presented  to   us   which  does  not 
bear  the  mark    of    ephemeral    duration?     As 

,  i         ,    -I  £•    ft-        J.T_  i       Changeability 

respects  the   tribes  of  life,   they  are  scarcely  Of  forms  ami 
worth  a  moment's  thought,  for  the  term  of  the  2gJrS"wr. 
great     majority   of  them  is   so  brief   that   we 
may  say  they  are  born  and  die  before  our  eyes.     If  we 
examine  them,  not  as  individuals,  but  as  races,  the  same 
conclusion  holds  good,  only  the  scale  is  enlarged  from  a 


22       ON  THE  GOVEBNMENT  OF  NATURE  BY  LAW.     [CH.  I. 

few  days  to  a  few  centuries.  If  from  living  we  turn  to 
lifeless  nature,  we  encounter  again  the  evidence  of  brief 
continuance.  The  sea  is  unceasingly  remoulding  its 
shores;  hard  as  they  are,  the  mountains  are  constantly 
yielding  to  frost  and  to  rain ;  here  an  extensive  tract  of 
country  is  elevated,  there  depressed.  We  fail  to  find  any 
thing  that  is  not  undergoing  change. 

Then  forms  are  in  their  nature  transitory,  law  is  ever- 
lasting. If  from  visible  forms  we  turn  to  directing  law 
how  vast  is  the  difference.  We  pass  from  the  finite, 
the  momentary,  the  incidental,  the  conditioned — to  the 
illimitable,  the  eternal,  the  necessary,  the  unshackled. 

It  is  of  law  that  I  am  to  speak  in  this  book.  In  a 
Th«otyectof  world  composed  of  vanishing  forms  I  am  to 
Msertoie con*  •y^n^ca*e  th°  imperishability,  the  majesty  of 
troiofiawin  law,  and  to  show  how  man  proceeds,  in  his 
humanaffairs.  BOC{&\  march,  in  obedience  to  it.  I  am  to  lead 
my  reader,  perhaps  in  a  reluctant  path,  from  the  outward 
phantasmagorial  illusions  which  surround  us,  and  so 
ostentatiously  obtrude  themselves  on  our  attention,  to 
something  that  lies  in  silence  and  strength  behind.  I  am  to 
draw  his  thoughts  from  the  tangible  to  the  invisible,  from 
the  limited  to  the  universal,  from  the  changeable  to  the 
invariable,  from  the  transitory  to  the  eternal;  from  the 
expedients  and  volitions  so  largely  amusing  the  life  of 
man,  to  the  predestined  and  resistless  issuing  from  the 
fiat  of  God. 


CHAPTER  II. 
OF  EUROPE :  ITS  TOPOGRAPHY  AND  ETHNOLOGY. 

ITS  PRIMITIVE  MODES  OF  THOUGHT,  AND  THEIK  VROGRESS1VE  VARIATIONS, 
MANIFESTED   IN   THE   GREEK  AGE   OF   CREDULITY. 

Description  of  Europe :  its  Topography,  Meteorology,  and  secular 
Geological  Movements. — Their  Effect  on  its  Inhabitants. 

Its  Ethnology  determined  through  its  Vocabularies. 

Comparative  Theology  of  Greece ;  the  Stage  of  Sorcery,  the  Anthro- 
po<-entric  Stage. — Becomes  connected  with  false  Geography  and 
Astronomy. — Heaven,  the  Earth,  the  Under  World. — Origin,  continuous 
Variation  and  Progress  of  Greek  Theology. — It  introduces  Ionic 
Philosophy. 

Decline  of  Greek  Theology,  occasioned  by  the  Advance  of  Geography  and 
Philosophical  Criticism. — Secession  of  Poets,  Philosophers,  Historians. 
— Abortive  public  Attempts  to  sustain  it. — Duration  of  its  Decline. — 
Its  Fall. 

EUROPE  is  geographically  a  peninsula,  and  historically  a 
dependency  of  Asia. 

It  is  constructed  on  the  western  third  of  a  vast 
mountain  axis,  which  reaches  in  a  broken  and  Description  of 
irregular  course  from  the  Sea  of  Japan  to  the  EuroP«- 
Bay  of  Biscay.  On  the  flanks  of  this  range,  peninsular 
slopes  are  directed  toward  the  south,  and  extensive 
plateaus  to  the  north.  The  culminating  point  in  Europe 
is  Mont  Blanc,  16,000  feet  above  the  level  of  the  sea. 
The  axis  of  elevation  is  not  the  axis  of  figure ;  the  incline 
to  the  south  is  much  shorter  and  steeper  than  that  to  the 
north.  The  boundless  plains  of  Asia  are  prolonged 
through  Germany  and  Holland.  An  army  may  pass  from 
the  Pacific  to  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  a  distance  of  more  than 
six  thousand  miles,  without  encountering  any  elevation  of 
more  than  a  few  hundred  feet.  The  descent  from  Asia 


24  THE   TOPOGRAPHY   AND  [CH.  II. 

into  Europe  is  indicated  in  a  general  manner  by  the  mean 
elevation  of  the  two  continents  above  the  level  of  the  sea ; 
that  for  Asia  being  1132  feet,  that  for  Europe  C71. 
Through  the  avenue  thus  open  to  them,  the  Oriental 
The  great  hordes  have  again  and  again  precipitated  them- 
path-zone.  selves  on  the  West.  With  an  abundance  of 
springs  and  head-waters,  but  without  any  stream  capable 
of  offering  a  serious  obstacle,  this  tract  has  a  temperature 
well  suited  to  military  movements.  It  coincides  generally 
with  the  annvial  isothermal  line  of  50°,  skirting  the 
northern  boundary  beyond  which  the  vine  ceases  to  grow, 
and  the  limiting  region  beyond  which  the  wild  boar  does 
not  pass. 

Constructed  thtis,  Europe  is  not  only  easily  accessible 
Exterior  and  from  Asia,  a  fact  of  no  little  moment  in  its 
interior  acccs-  ancient  history,  but  it  is  also  singularly  acces- 
sible interiorly,  or  from  one  of  its  parts  to 
another.  Still  more,  its  sea-line  is  so  broken,  it  has  so 
many  intrusive  gulfs  and  bays,  that,  its  surface  considered, 
its  maritime  coast  is  greater  than  that  of  any  other  con- 
tinent. In  this  respect  it  contrasts  strikingly  with 
Africa.  Europe  has  one  mile  of  coast-line  for  every  156 
square  miles  of  surface,  Africa  has  only  one  for  every  023. 
This  extensive  maritime  contact  Jidds,  of  course,  greatly 
to  its  interior  as  well  as  exterior  accessibility. 

The  mean  annual  temperature  of  the  European  coiin  tries 
on  the  southern  slope  of  the  mountain  axis  is  from  60°  to 
70°  F.,  but  of  those  to  the  north  the  heat  gradually 
declines,  until,  at  the  extreme  limit  on  the  shores  of 
Zembla,  the  ground  is  perpetually  frozen.  As  on  other 
parts  of  the  globe,  the  climate  does  not  correspond 
Distribution  *°  tne  latitude,  but  is  disturbed  by  several 
ofhratin  causes,  among  which  may  be  distinguished  the 
great  Atlantic  current  — the  Gulf  Stream  coming 
from  America — and  the  Sahara  Desert.  The  latter  gives 
to  the  south  of  Europe  an  unduly  high  heat,  and  the 
former  to  Ireland,  England,  and  the  entire  west  a  genial 
temperature.  Together  they  press  into  higher  latitudes 
the  annual  isothermal  lines.  If  in  Europe  there  are  no 
deserts,  there  are  none  of  those  impenetrable  forests  seen 
in  tropical  countries.  From  the  westerly  shores  of 


Oil.  II.]  ETHNOLOGY   OK   EUROPE.  25 

Portugal,  France,  arid  Ireland,  the  humidity  diminishes  as 
we  pass  to  the  east,  and,  indeed,  if  we  advance  into  Asia, 
it  disappears  in  the  desert  of  Gobi.  There  are  no  vast 
homogeneous  areas  as  in  Asia,  and  therefore  there  is  no 
widespread  uniformity  in  the  races  of  men. 

But  not  only  is  the  temperature  of  the  European  con- 
tinent elevated  by  the  Gulf  Stream  and  the  south-west 
wind,  its  luxuriance  of  vegetation  depends  on  them ; 
for  luxuriance  of  vegetation  is  determined,  among  other 
things,  by  the  supply  of  rain.  A  profusion  of  Andthequan- 
water  gives  to  South  America  its  amazing  forests ;  li'y  of  rdin- 
a  want  inflicts  on  Australia  its  shadeless  trees,  with  their 
shrunken  and  pointed  leaves.  With  the  diminished 
moisture  the  green  gardens  of  France  are  replaced  in  Gobi 
by  ligneous  plants  covered  with  a  gray  down.  Physical 
circumstances  control  the  vegetable  as  well  as  the  animal 
world. 

The  westerly  regions  of  Europe,  through  the  influence  of 
the  south-west  wind,  the  Gulf  Stream,  and  their  mountain 
ranges,  are  supplied  with  abundant  rains,  and  have  a 
favourable  mean  annual  temperature ;  but  as  we  pass  to 
the  eastern  confines  the  number  of  rainy  days  diminishes, 
the  absolute  annual  quantity  of  rain  and  snow  is  less,  and 
the  mean  annual  temperature  is  lower.  On  the  Atlantic 
face  of  the  mountains  of  Norway  it  is  perpetually  raining : 
the  annual  depth  of  water  is  there  82  inches ;  but  on  the 
opposite  side  of  those  mountains  is  only  21  inches. 
For  similar  reasons,  Ireland  is  moist  and  green,  and  in 
Cornwall  the  laurel  and  camellia  will  bear  a  winter 
exposure. 

There  are  six  maximum  points  of  rain — Norway,  Scot- 
land^  Soiith-western  Ireland  and  England,  Portugal, 
North-eastern  Spain,  Lombardy.  They  respectively  cor- 
respond to  mountains.  In  general,  the  amount  of  rain 
diminishes  from  the  equator  toward  the  poles ;  but  it  is 
greatly  controlled  by  the  disturbing  influence  of  elevated 
ridges,  which  in  many  instances  far  more  than  compensate 
for  the  effects  of  latitude.  The  Alps  exercise  an  influence 
over  the  meteorology  of  all  Europe. 

Not   only  do   mountains  thus   determine   the   absolute 
quantity  of  rain,  they  'also  affect  the  number  of  rainy  days 
VOL.  I.— 3 


26  THE  TOPOGRAPHY   AND  [CU.  II. 

in  a  year.  The  occurrence  of  a  rainy  season  depends  on, 
the  amount  of  moisture  existing  in  the  air ;  and  hence  its 
frequency  is  greater  at  the  Atlantic  sea-board  than  in  the 
interior,  where  the  wind  arrives  in  a  drier  state,  much  of 
its  moisture  having  been  precipitated  by  the  mountains 
The  comber  forcing  it  to  a  great  elevation.  Thus,  on  the 
of  rainy  days;  eastern  coast  of  Ireland  it  rains  208  days  in  a 
year;  in  England,  about  150;  at  Kazan,  90;  and  in 
Siberia  only  60  days. 

When  the  atmospheric  temperature  is  sufficiently  low, 
the  condensed  water  descends  under  the  form  of  snow.  Jn 
general,  the  annual  depth  of  snow  and  the  number  of 
snowy  days  increase  toward  the  north.  In  Home  the 
ana  of  snowy  snowy  days  are  1$ ;  in  Venice,  5^ ;  in  Paris,  12 ; 
to?*-  in  St.  Petersburgh,  171.  Whatever  causes  in- 

terfere with  the  distribution  of  heat  must  influence  the 
precipitation  of  snow ;  among  such  are  the  Gulf  Stream 
and  local  altitude.  Hence,  on  the  coast  of  Portugal,  snow 
is  of  infrequent  occurrence ;  in  Lisbon  it  never  snowed 
from  1806  to  1811. 

Such  facts  teach  us  how  many  meteorological  contrasts 
Europe  presents,  how  many  climates  it  contains.  Neces- 
sarily it  is  full  of  modified  men. 

If  we  examine  the  maps  of  monthly  isothermals,  we 
....  ..  ,  observe  how  strikingly  those  lines  change,  be- 

V  i  brat  ions  or  .  iii  t 

the  isother-  coming  convex  to  the  north  as  summer  approaches, 
mai  lines.  an(j  coneave  as  winter.  They  by  no  means 
observe  a  parallelism  to  the  mean,  but  change  their  flex- 
ures, assuming  new  sinuosities.  In  their  absolute  trans- 
fer they  move  with  a  variable  velocity,  and  through  spaces 
far  from  insignificant.  The  line  of  50°  F.,  which  in 
January  passes  through  Lisbon  and  the  south  of  the 
Morea,  in  July  has  travelled  to  the  north  shore  of  Lap- 
laud,  and  incloses  the  White  Sea.  As  in  some  grand 
musical  instrument,  the  strings  of  which  vibrate,  the 
isothermal  lines  of  Europe  and  Asia  beat  to  and  fro,  but  it 
takes  a  year  for  them  to  accomplish  one  pulsation. 

All  over  the  world  physical  circumstances  control  the 
human  race.  They  make  the  Australian  a  savage;  in- 
capacitate the  negro,  who  can  never  invent  an  alphabet 
or  an  arithmetic,  and  whoso  theology  never  passes  beyond 


CH.  II.]  ETHNOLOGY  OF  EUROPE.  27 

the  stage  of  sorcery.     They  cause  the  Tartars  to  delight 
in  a  diet  of  milk,  and  the  American  Indian  to  Europe  is  fun 
abominate  it.     They  make  the  dwarfish  races  of  of  meteoro- 
Europe  instinctive  miners  and  metallurgists.  An  tnwuif  and" 
artificial  control  over  temperature  by  dwellings,  therefore  of 

,,       ,,  .    ,  j  i    /?       J.T-  modified  men. 

warm  for  the  winter  and  cool  for  the  summer; 
variations  of  clothing  to  suit  the  season  of  the  year,  and 
especially  the  management  of  fire,  have  enabled  man  to 
maintain  himself  in  all  climates.  The  invention  of  arti- 
ficial light  has  extended  the  available  term  of  his  life ;  by 
giving  the  night  to  his  use,  it  has,  by  the  social  intercourse 
it  encourages,  polished  his  manners  and  refined  his  tastes, 
perhaps  as  much  as  any  thing  else  has  aided  in  his  intel- 
lectual progress.  Indeed,  these  are  among  the  primary 
conditions  that  have  occasioned  his  civilization.  Variety 
of  natural  conditions  gives  rise  to  different  national  types, 
artificial  inventions  occasion  renewed  modifications.  Where 
there  are  many  climates  there  will  be  many  forms  of  men. 
Herein,  as  we  shall  in  due  season  discover,  lies  the  expla- 
nation of  the  energy  of  European  life,  and  the  development 
of  its  civilization. 

Would  any  one  deny  the  influence  of  rainy  days  on  our 
industrial  habits  and  on  our  mental  condition  even  in  a 
civilized  state?  With  how  much  more  force,  then,  must 
such  meteorological  incidents  have  acted  on  the  ill-protected, 
ill-clad,  and  ill-housed  barbarian !  Would  any  one  deny 
the  increasing  difficulty  with  which  life  is  maintained  as 
we  pass  from  the  southern  peninsulas  to  the  more  rigorous 
climates  of  the  north  ?  There  is  a  relationship  between 
the  mean  annual  heat  of  a  locality  and  the  instincts  of  its 
inhabitants  for  food.  The  Sicilian  is  satisfied  with  a  light 
farinaceous  repast  and  a  few  fruits ;  the  Norwegian  re- 
quires a  strong  diet  of  flesh ;  to  the  Laplander  it  is  none 
the  less  acceptable  if  grease  of  the  bear,  or  train  oil,  or  the 
blubber  of  whales  be  added.  Meteorology  to  no  little 
extent  influences  the  morals ;  the  instinctive  propensity 
to  drunkenness  is  a  function  of  the  latitude.  Food,  houses, 
clothing,  bear  a  certain  relation  to  the  isothermal  lines. 

For  similar  reasons,  the  inhabitants  of  Europe  each 
year  tend  to  more  complete  homogeneity.  Climate  and 
meteorological  differences  are  more  and  more  perfectly 


28  THE  TOPOGRAPHY   AND  [CH.  II. 

'  equalized  by  artificial  inventions ;  nor  is  it  alone  a  similarity 
But,  throuRh  of  habits,  a  similarity  of  physiological  constitu- 
artiflciai  in-  ^ion  a]so  cn8UCS.  The  effect  of  such  inventions 

ventions,  it  .  .     _  i  •   i 

tends  to  ho-     is  to  equalize  the  influences  to  which  men  are 
wSdnmodern  exposed ;  they  are  brought  more  closely  to  the 
'  times.  mean  typical  standard,  and — especially  is  it  to  be 

remembered — with  this  closer  approach  to  each  other  in 
conformation,  comes  a  closer  approach  in  feelings  and 
habits,  and  even  in  the  manner  of  thinking. 

On  the  southern  slope  of  the  mountain  axis  project  the 
historic   peninsulas,  Greece,  Italy,  Spain.      To 

IbeMcditer-  *  '.  J. '      r 

raneanpenin-  the  former  we  trace  unmistakably  the  com- 
mencement of  European  civilization.  The  first 
Greeks  patriotically  affirmed  that  their  own  climate  was 
the  best  suited  for  man ;  beyond  the  mountains  to  the 
north  there  reigned  a  Cimmerian  darkness,  an  everlasting 
winter.  It  was  the  realm  of  Boreas,  the  shivering  tyrant. 
In  the  early  ages  man  recognized  cold  as  his  mortal  enemy. 
Physical  inventions  have  enabled  him  to  overcome  it,  and 
now  lie  maintains  a  more  difficult  and  doubtful  struggle 
with  heat. 

Beyond  these  peninsulas,  and  bounding  the  continent  on 
riie  Mediter-  the  south,  is  the  Mediterranean,  nearly  two 
rancan  Sea.  thousand  miles  in  length,  isolating  Europe  from 
Africa  socially,  but  uniting  them  commercially.  The- 
Black  Sea  and  that  of  Azof  are  dependencies  of  it.  It  has, 
conjointly  with  them,  'a  shore-line  of  13,000  miles,  and 
exposes  a  surface  of  nearly  a  million  and  a  quarter  of 
square  miles.  It  is  subdivided  into  two  basins,  the  eastern 
and  western,  the  former  being  of  high  interest  historically, 
since  it  is  the  scene  of  the  dawn  of  European  intelligence; 
the  western  is  bounded  by  the  Italian  peninsula,  Sicily, 
and  the  African  promontory  of  Cape  Bon  on  one  side,  and 
at  the  other  has  as  its  portal  the  Straits  of  Gibraltar. 
The  temperature  is  ten  or  twelve  degrees  higher  than  the 
Atlantic,  and,  since  much  of  the  water  is  removed  by 
evaporation,  it  is  necessarily  more  saline  than  that  ocean. 
Its  colour  is  green  where  shallow,  blue  where  deep. 

For  countless  centuries  Asia  has  experienced  a  slow  up- 
ward movement,  not  only  affecting  her  own  topography, 
but  likewise  that  of  her  European  dependency.  There 


CH.  II.]  ETHNOLOGY  OF  EUROPE.  29 

was  a  time  when  the  great  sandy  desert  of  Gobi  was  the 
bed  of  a  sea  which  communicated  through  the  0 

r\        •  -xi.    AI       -D   ix-  i    Seculare8<>- 

(Jaspian  with  the  .Baltic,  as  may  be  proved  not  logical  move- 
only  by  existing  geographical  facts,  but  also  J^VSdS", 
from  geological  considerations.  It  is  only  neces-  and  its  social 

f        if*  •  .1        •  f      ,    consequences. 

sary,  for  this  purpose,  to  inspect  the  imperfect 
maps  that  have  been  published  of  the  silurian  and  even 
tertiary  periods.  The  vertical  displacement  of  Europe, 
during  and  since  the  latter  period,  has  indisputably  been 
more  than  2000  feet  in  many  places.  The  effects  of  such 
movements  on  the  flora  and  fauna  of  a  region  must,  in  the 
course  of  time,  be  very  important,  for  an  elevation  of  350 
feet  is  equal  to  one  degree  of  cold  in  the  mean  annual  tempe- 
rature, or  to  sixty  miles  on  the  surface  northward.  Nor  has 
this  slow  disturbance  ended.  Again  and  again,  in  historic 
times,  have  its  results  operated  fearfully  on  Europe,  by 
forcibly  precipitating  the  Asiatic  noniades  along  the  great 
path-zone ;  again  and  again,  thrnugh  such  changes  of  level, 
have  they  been  rendered  waterless,  and  thus  driven  into  a 
forced  emigration.  Some  of  their  rivers,  as  the  Oxus  and 
Jaxartes,  have,  within  the  records  of  history,  been  dry  for 
several  years.  To  these  topographical  changes,  rather 
than  to  political  influences,  we  must  impute  many  of  the 
most  celebrated  tribal  invasions.  It  has  been  the  custom 
to  refer  these  events  to  an  excessive  overpopulation  period- 
ically occurring  in  Central  Asia,  or  to  the  ambition  of 
warlike  chieftains.  Doubtless  those  regions  are  well 
adapted  to  human  life,  and  hence  liable  to  overpopulation, 
considering  the  pursuits  man  there  follows,  and  doubtless 
there  have  been  occasions  on  which  those  nations  have 
been  put  in  motion  by  their  princes  :  but  the  modern 
historian  cannot  too  carefully  bear  in  mind  the  laws  which 
regulate  the  production  of  men,  and  also  the  body  of 
evidence  which  proves  that  the  crust  of  the  earth  is  not 
motionless,  but  rising  in  one  place  and  sinking  in  another. 
The  grand  invasions  of  Europe  by  Asiatic  hordes  have 
been  much  more  violent  and  abrupt  than  would  answer  to 
a  steady  pressure  resulting  from  overpopulation,  and  too 
extensive  for  mere  warlike  incitement ;  they  answer  more 
completely  to  the  experience  of  some  irresistible  necessit}' 
arising  from  an  insuperable  physical  cause,  which  could 


30  THE  TOPOGRAPHY  AND  [CH.  II. 

drive  in  hopeless  despair  from  their  homes  the  young  and 
the  old,  the  vigorous  and  feeble,  with  their  cattle,  and 
waggons,  and  flocks.  Such  a  cause  is  the  shifting  of  the 
soil  and  disturbance  of  the  courses  of  water.  The  tribes 
compelled  to  migrate  were  forced  along  the  path-zone, 
their  track  being,  therefore,  on  a  parallel  of  latitude,  and 
not  on  a  meridian ;  and  hence,  for  the  reasons  set  forth  in 
the  preceding  chapter,  their  movements  and  journey  of 
easier  accomplishment. 

These  geological  changes  then  enter  as  an  element  in 
Kate  and  ex-  human  history,  not  only  for  Asia,  of  which  the 
tent  of  these  great  inland  sea  has  dwindled  away  to  the 
nt8'  Caspian,  and  lost  its  connection  with  the  Baltic, 
but  for  Europe  also.  The  traditions  of  ancient  deluges, 
which  are  the  primitive  facts  of  Greek  history,  refer  to 
such  movements  ;  perhaps  the  opening  of  the  Thraoian 
Bosphorns  was  one  of  them.  In  much  later  times  we  are 
perpetually  meeting  with  incidents  depending  on  geological 
disturbances;  the  caravan  trade  of  Asia  Minor  was  de- 
stroyed by  changes  of  level  and  the  accumulation  of  sands 
blown  from  the  encroaching  deserts ;  the  Cimbri  were 
impelled  into  Italy  by  the  invasion  of  the  sea  on  their 
possessions.  There  is  not  a  shore  in  Europe  which  does 
not  give  similar  evidence ;  the  mouths  of  the  Rhine,  as 
they  were  in  the  Roman  times,  are  obliterated ;  the 
eastern  coast  of  England  has  been  cut  away  for  miles. 
In  the  Mediterranean  the  shore-line  is  altogether  changed ; 
towns,  once  on  the  coast,  are  far  away  inland  ;  others  have 
sunk  beneath  the  sea.  Islands,  like  Rhodes,  have  risen 
from  the  bottom.  The  North  Adriatic,  once  a  deep  gulf, 
has  now  become  shallow  ;  there  are  leaning  towers  and 
inclining  temples  that  have  sunk  with  the  settling  of  the 
earth.  On  the  opposite  extremity  of  Europe,  the  Scandi- 
navian peninsula  furnishes  an  instance  of  slow  secular 
motion,  the  northern  part  rising  gradually  above  the  sea 
at  the  rate  of  about  four  feet  in  a  century.  This  elevation 
is  observed  through  a  space  of  many  hundred  miles,  in- 
creasing toward  the  north.  The  southern  extremity,  on 
the  contrary,  experiences  a  slow  depression. 

These  slow  movements  are  nothing  more  than  a  con- 
tinuation of  what  has  been  going  on  for  numberless  ages. 


CH.  II.]  ETHNOLOGY  OF  EUEOPE.  31 

Since  the  tertiary  period  two-thirds  of  Europe  have  been 
lifted  above  the  sea.  The  Norway  coast  has  been  elevated 
600  feet,  the  Alps  have  been  upheaved  2000  or  3000,  the 
Apennines  1000  to  2000  feet.  The  country  between  Mont 
Blanc  and  Vienna  has  been  thus  elevated  since  the  adjacent 
seas  were  peopled  with  existing  animals.  Since  the 
Neolithic  age,  the  British  Islands  have  undergone  a  great 
change  of  level,  and,  indeed,  have  been  separated  from  the 
continent  through  the  sinking  of  England  and  the  rising 
of  Scotland. 

At  the  earliest  period  Europe  presents  us  with  a  double 
population.  An  Indo-Germanic  column  had  entered  it 
from  the  east,  and  had  separated  into  two  portions  the 
occupants  it  had  encountered,  driving  one  to  the  north,  the 
other  to  the  south-west.  These  primitive  tribes  betray, 
physiologically,  a  Mongolian  origin ;  and  there  Early  inha- 
are  indications  of  considerable  weight  that  they  wiantsof 
themselves  had  been,  in  ancient  times,  intruders, 
who,  issuing  from  their  seats  in  Asia,  had  invaded  and 
dislocated  the  proper  autochthons  of  Europe.  In  the 
Pleistocene  age  there  existed  in  Central  Europe  a  rude 
race  of  hunters  and  fishers,  closely  allied  to  the  Esquimaux. 
Man  was  contemporary  with  the  cave  bear,  the  cave  lion, 
the  amphibious  hippopotamus,  the  mammoth.  Caves  that 
have  been  examined  in  France  or  elsewhere  have  furnished 
for  the  stone  age,  axes,  knives,  lance  and  arrow  points, 
scrapers,  hammers.  The  change  from  what  has  been 
termed  the  chipped,  to  the  polished  stone  period,  was  very 
gradual.  It  coincides  with  the  domestication  of  the  dog, 
an  epoch  in  hunting  life.  The  appearance  of  arrow  heads 
indicates  the  invention  of  the  bow,  and  the  rise  of  man 
from  a  defensive  to  an  offensive  mode  of  life.  The  intro- 
duction of  barbed  arrows  shows  how  inventive  talent  was 
displaying  itself;  bone  and  horn  tips,  that  the  huntsman 
\vas  including  smaller  animals,  and  perhaps  birds,  in  his 
chase ;  bone  whistles,  his  companionship  with  other  hunts- 
men, or  with  his  dog.  The  scraping  knives  of  flint,  in- 
dicate the  use  of  skin  for  clothing,  and  rude  bodkins  and 
needles,  its  manufacture.  Shells  perforated  for  bracelets 
and  necklaces,  prove  how  soon  a  taste  for  personal  adorn- 
ment was  acquired;  the  implements  necessary  for  the 


32  THE   TOPOGRAPHY  AND  [CH.  H. 

preparation  of  pigments  suggest  the  painting  of  the  body, 
and  perhaps,  tattooing  ;  and  batons  of  rank  bear  witness  to 
the  beginning  of  a  social  organization. 

We  have  thus  as  our  starting-point  a  barbarian  popula- 
tion, believers  in  sorcery,  and,  in  some  places,  undoubtedly 
cannibals,  maintaining,  in  the  central  and  northern  parts 
of  Europe,  their  existence  with  difficulty  by  reason  of  the 
severity  of  the  climate.  In  the  southern,  more  congenial 
conditions  permitted  a  form  of  civilization  to  commence, 
of  which  the  rude  Cyclopean  structures  here  and  there 
met  with,  such  as  the  ruins  of  Orchomenos,  the  lion  gate 
of  Mycenae,  the  tunnel  of  Lake  Copais,  are  perhaps  the 
vestiges. 

At  what  period  this  intrusive  Indo-Germanic  column 
made  its  attack  cannot  be  ascertained.  The  national 
vocabularies  of  Europe,  to  which  we  must  resort  for 
evidence,  might  lead  us  to  infer  that  the  condition  of  civili- 
Their  social  zation  of  the  conquering  people  was  not  very 
condition.  advanced.  They  were  acquainted  with  the  use 
of  domestic  animals,  farming  implements,  carts,  and 
yokes  ;  they  were  also  possessed  of  boats,  the  rudder,  oars, 
but  were  unacquainted  with  the  movement  of  vessels  by 
sails.  These  conclusions  seem  to  be-  established  by  the 
facts  that  words  equivalent  to  boat,  rudder,  oar,  are 
common  to  the  languages  of  the  offshoots  of  the  stock, 
though  located  very  widely  asunder ;  but  those  for  mast 
and  sails  are  of  special  invention,  and  differ  in  adjacent 
nations. 

In  nearly  all  the  Indo-Germanic  tongues,  the  family 
names,  father,  mother,  brother,  sister,  daughter,  are  the 
same  respectively.  A  similar  equivalence  may 
Ste'deduced  be  observed  in  a  great  many  familiar  objects, 
from  their  vo-  house,  door,  town,  path.  It  has  been  remarked, 
that  while  this  holds  good  for  terms  of  a  peace- 
ful nature,  many  of  those  connected  with  warfare  and 
the  chase  are  different  in  different  languages.  Such 
facts  appear  to  prove  that  the  Asiatic  invaders  fol- 
lowed a  nomadic  and  pastoral  life.  Many  of  the  terms 
connected  with  such  an  avocation  are  widely  diffused. 
This  is  the  case  with  ploughing,  grinding,  weaving,  cook- 
ing, baking,  sewing,  spinning ;  with  such  objects  as  corn, 


CH.  II.]  ETHNOLOGY  OF   EUROPE.  3'n 

flesh,  meat,  vestment ;  with  wild  animals  common  to 
Europe  and  Asia,  as  the  bear  and  the  wolf.  So,  too,  of 
words  connected  with  social  organization,  despot,  rex, 
queen.  The  numerals  from  1  to  100  coincide  in  Sanscrit, 
Greek,  Latin,  Lithuanian,  Gothic ;  but  this  is  not  the  case 
with  1000,  a  fact  which  has  led  comparative  philologists 
to  the  conclusion  that,  though  at  the  time  of  the  emigra- 
tion a  sufficient  intellectual  advance  had  been  made  to 
invent  the  decimal  system,  perhaps  from  counting  upon 
the  fingers,  yet  that  it  was  very  far  from  perfection.  To 
the  inhabitants  of  Central  Asia  the  sea  was  altogether 
unknown  ;  hence  the  branches  of  the  emigrating  column, 
as  they  diverged  north  and  south,  gave  it  different  names. 
But,  though  unacquainted  with  the  sea,  they  were  familiar 
with  salt,  as  is  proved  by  the  recurrence  of  its  name. 
Nor  is  it  in  the  vocabularies  alone  that  these  resemblances 
are  remarked ;  the  same  is  to  be  said  of  the  grammar. 
M.  Max  M  filler  shows  that  in  Sanscrit,  Zend,  Lithuanian, 
Doric,  Slavonic,  Latin,  Gothic,  the  forms  of  the  auxiliary 
verb  to  be  are  all  varieties  of  one  common  type,  and  that 
"  the  coincidences  between  the  language  of  the  Veda  and 
the  dialect  spoken  at  the  present  day  by  the  Lithuanian 
recruits  at  Berlin  are  greater  by  far  than  between.  French 
and  Italian,  and  that  the  essential  forms  of  grammar  had 
been  fully  framed  and  established  before  the  first  separation 
of  the  Aryan  family  took  place." 

But  it  should  not  be  overlooked  that  such  interesting 
deductions  founded  on  language,  its  vocabularies  and 
grammar,  must  not  be  pressed  too  closely.  The  state  of 
civilization  of  the  Indo-Germanic  column,  as  thus  ascer- 
tained, must  needs  have  been  inferior  to  that  of  the  centre 
from  which  it  issued  forth.  Such  we  observe  to  be  the 
case  in  all  migratory  movements.  It  is  not  the  more 
intellectual  or  civilized  portions  of  a  community  which 
voluntarily  participate  therein,  but  those  in  whom  the 
physical  and  animal  character  predominates.  There  may 
be  a  very  rough  offshoot  froin  a  very  polished  stock.  Of 
course,  the  movement  we  are  here  considering  must  have 
taken  place  at  a  period  chronologically  remote,  yet  not  so 
remote  as  might  seem  to  be  indicated  by  the  state  of  civili- 
zation of  the  invaders,  used  as  an  indication  of  the  state 

3* 


34  THE  TOPOGRAPHY    AND  [CH.  II 

of  civilization  of  the  country  from  which  they  had  come. 
In  Asia,  social  advancement,  as  far  back  as  we  can  discover, 
has  ever  been  very  slow  ;  but,  at  the  first  moment  that  we 
encounter  the  Hindu  race  historically  or  philologically,  it 
is  dealing  with  philosophical  and  theological  questions  of 
the  highest  order,  and  settling,  to  its  own  satisfaction, 
problems  requiring  a  cultivated  intellect  even  so  much  as 
to  propose.  All  this  implies  that  in  its  social  advance- 
ment there  must  have  already  been  consumed  a  very  long 
period  of  time. 

But  what  chiefly  interests  us  is  the  relation  which  must 
have  been  necessarily  maintained  between  the  intrusive 
people  and  those  whom  they  thus  displaced,  the  com- 
Commi  ..  mingling  of  the  ideas  of  the  one  with  those  of 
of  bUx<i  and  the  other,  arising  from  their  commingling  of 
blood.  It  is  because  of  this  that  we  find  coexist- 
ing in  the  pre-Hellenic  times  the  sorcery  of  the  Celt  and 
the  polytheism  of  the  Hindu.  There  can  be  no  doubt 
that  many  of  the  philosophical  lineaments  displayed  by 
the  early  European  mythology  are  not  due  to  indigenous 
thought,  but  were  derived  from  an  Asiatic  source. 

Moreover,  at  the  earliest  historic  times,  notwithstanding 
the  disturbance  which  must  have  lasted  long  after  tho 
successful  and  perhaps  slow  advance  of  the  Asiatic  column, 
things  had  come  to  a  state  of  equilibrium  or  repose,  not 
alone  socially,  but  also  physiologically.  It  takes  a  long 
time  for  the  conqueror  and  conquered  to  settle  together, 
without  farther  disturbance  or  question,  into  their  relative 
positions  ;  it  takes  a  long  time  for  the  recollection  of 
conflicts  to  die  away.  But  far  longer  does  it  take  for  a 
race  of  invaders  to  come  into  unison  with  the  climate  of 
m  the  countries  they  have  seized,  the  system  of 

Cltmatc-mo-  ,    ,y  .,      ,„          i        ,i_  i_ 

f  man  accommodating  itself  only  through  suc- 
cessive  generations,  and  therefore  very  slowly, 
to  new  physical  conditions.  It  takes  long  be- 
fore the  skin  assumes  its  determinate  hue,  and  the  skull 
its  destined  form.  A  period  amply  sufficient  for  all  such 
changes  to  be  accomplished  in  Europe  had  transpired  at 
the  very  dawn  of  history,  and  strands  of  population  in  con- 
formity with  meteorological  and  geographical  influences, 
though  of  such  origin  as  has  been  described,  were  already 


CH.  II.  j  ETHNOLOGY  OF   EUROPE.  36 

distributed  upon  it.  A  condition  of  ethnical  equilibrium 
had  been  reached.  Along  each  isothermal  or  climatic  band 
were  its  correspondingly  modified  men,  spending  their 
lives  in  avocations  dictated  by  their  environment.  These 
strands  of  population  were  destined  to  be  dislocated,  and 
some  of  them  to  become  extinct,  by  inventing  or  originating 
among  themselves  new  and  unsuitable  artificial  physical 
conditions. 

Already  Europe  was  preparing  a  repetition  of  those 
events  of  which  Asia  from  time  immemorial  has  been  the 
scene.  Already  among  the  nations  bordering  on  the 
Mediterranean,  inhabitants  of  a  pleasant  climate,  in  which 
life  could  be  easily  maintained — where  the  isothermal  of 
January  is  41°  F.,  and  of  July  73£°  F. — civiliza-  First  gleams 
tion  was  commencing.  There  was  an  improving  of  civilization 
agriculture,  an  increasing  commerce,  and,  the  necessary 
consequence  thereof,  germs  of  art,  the  accumulation  of 
wealth.  The  southern  peninsulas  were  offering  to  the 
warlike  chieftains  of  middle  Europe  a  tempting  prize. 

Under  such  influences  Europe  may  be  considered  as 
emerging  from  the  barbarian  state.  It  had  lost  and  first  reiig. 
all  recollection  of  its  ancient  relations  with  India,  ious  °Pinious' 
which  have  only  been  disclosed  to  us  by  a  study  of  the 
vocabularies  and  grammar  of  its  diverse  tongues.  Upon 
its  indigenous  sorcery  an  Oriental  star-worship  had  been 
ingrafted,  the  legends  of  which  had  lost  their  significance. 
What  had  at  first  been  feigned  of  the  heavenly  bodies  had 
now  assumed  an  air  of  personality,  and  had  become 
attributed  to  heroes  and  gods. 

The  negro  under  the  equinoctial  line,  the  dwarfish  Lap- 
lander beyond  the  Arctic  Circle — man  everywhere,  in  his 
barbarous  state,  is  a  believer  in  sorcery,  witchcraft,  en- 
chantments ;  he  is  fascinated  by  the  incomprehensible. 
Any  unexpected  sound  or  sudden  motion  he  refers  to 
invisible  beings.  Sleep  and  dreams,  in  which  one-third 
of  his  life  is  spent,  assure  him  that  there  is  a  spiritual 
world.  He  multiplies  these  unrealities ;  he  gives  to  every 
grotto  a  genius ;  to  every  tree,  spring,  river,  mountain,  a 
divinity. 

Comparative  theology,  which  depends  on  the  law  of 
nontinuous  variation  of  human  thought,  and  is  indeed  one 


36  THE  TOPOGRAPHY   AND  [CH.  II. 

of  its  expressions,  universally  proves  that  the  moment, 
Localization  of  man  adopts  the  idea  of  an  existence  of  invisible 
the  invisible,  'beings,  he  recognizes  the  necessity  of  places  for 
their  residence,  all  nations  assigning  them  habitations 
beyond  the  boundaries  of  the  earth.  A  local  heaven  and 
a  local  hell  are  found  in  every  mythology.  In  Greece, 
as  to  heaven,  there  was  a  universal  agreement  that  it  was 
situated  above  the  blue  sky  ;  but  as  to  hell,  much  difference 
of  opinion  prevailed.  There  were  many  who  thought  that 
it  was  a  deep  abyss  in  the  interior  of  the  earth,  to  which 
certain  passages,  such  as  the  Acherusian  cave  in  Bithynia, 
led.  But  those  who  with  Anaximenes  considered  the 
earth  to  be  like  a  broad  leaf  floating  in  the  air,  and  who 
accepted  the  doctrine  that  hell  was  divided  into  a  Tartarus, 
or  region  of  night  on  the  left,  and  an  Elysium,  or  region 
of  dawn  on  the  right,  and  that  it  was  equally  distant  from 
all  parts  of  the  upper  surface,  were  nearer  to  the  original 
conception,  which  doubtless  placed  it  on  the  under  or 
shadowy  side  of  the  earth.  The  portals  of  descent  were 
thus  in  the  west,  where  the  sun  and  stars  set,  though  here 
and  there  were  passages  leading  thrcmgh  the  ground  to 
the  other  side,  such  as  those  by  which  Hercules  and 
Ulysses  had  gone.  The  place  of  ascent  was  in  the  east, 
and  the  morning  twilight  a  reflection  from  the  Elysian 
Fields. 

The  picture  of  Nature  thus  interpreted  has  for  its  centre 
Theanthropo-  *^e  earth ;  for  its  most  prominent  object,  man. 
centric  stage  \Vhatever  there  is  has  been  made  for  his  pleasure, 

aoug  t-  or  to  minister  to  his  use.  To  this  belief  that 
every  thing  is  of  a  subordinate  value  compared  with  him- 
self, he  clings  with  tenacity  even  in  his  most  advanced 
mental  state. 

Not  without  surprise  do  we  trace  the  progress  of  the 
human  mind.  The  barbarian,  as  a  believer  in  sorcery,  lives 
in  incessant  dread.  All  Nature  seems  to  be  at  enmity  with 
him  and  conspiring  for  his  hurt.  Out  of  the  darkness  he 
cannot  tell  what  alarming  spectre  may  emerge ;  he  may, 
with  reason,  fear  that  injury  is  concealed  in  every  stone, 
and  hidden  behind  every  leaf.  How  wide  is  the  interval 
from  this  terror-stricken  condition  to  that  state  in  which 
man  persuades  himself  of  the  human  destiny  of  the 


CH.  II. J  ETHNOLOGY   OF   EUROPE.  37 

universe !     Yet,   wonderful   to   be  said,   he    passes    that 
interval  at  a  single  step. 

In  the  infancy  of  the  human  race,  geographical  and 
astronomical  ideas  are  the  same  all  over  the  world,  for 
they  are  the  interpretation  of  things  according  to  outward 
appearances,  the  accepting  of  phenomena  as  they  are  pre- 
sented, without  any  of  the  corrections  that  reason  may 
offer.  This  universality  and  homogeneity  is  nothing 
more  than  a  manifestation  of  the  uniform  mode  of  action 
of  human  organization. 

But  such  homogeneous  conclusions,  such  similar  pictures, 
are  strictly  peculiar  to  the  infancy  of  humanity.  From  homo- 
The  reasoning  faculty  at  length  inevitably  makes  geneous  ideas 
itself  felt,  and  diversities  of  interpretation  ensue,  tive^cfences 
Comparative  geography,  comparative  astronomy,  emeree- 
comparative  theology  thus  arise,  homogeneous  at  first,  but 
soon  exhibiting  variations. 

To  that  tendency  for  personification  which  marks  the 
early  life  of  man  are  due  many  of  the  mythologic  concep- 
tions. It  was  thus  that  the  Hours,  the  l)awn,  and  Kight 
with  her  black  mantle  bespangled  with  stars,  introduction 
received  their  forms.  Many  of  the  most  beau-  of  personified 
tiful  legends  were  thus  of  a  personified  astro-  form8- 
nomical  origin ;  many  were  derived  from  terrestrial  or 
familiar  phenomena,  The  clouds  were  thus  made  to  be 
animated  things ;  a  moving  spirit  was  given  to  the  storm, 
the  dew,  the  wind.  The  sun  setting  in  the  glowing  clouds 
of  the  west  became  Hercules  in  the  fiery  pile ;  the  morning 
dawn  extinguished  by  the  rising  sun  was  embodied  in 
the  story  of  Orpheus  and  Eurydice.  These  legends  still 
survive  in  India. 

But  it  must  not  be  supposed  that  all  Greek  mythology 
can  be  thus  explained.    It  is  enough  for  us  to  examine  the 
circumstances  under  which,  for  many  ages,  the  European 
communities  had  been  placed,  to  understand  that  they  had 
forgotten  much  that  their  ancestors  had  brought  The  gradual 
from  Asia.     Much  that  was  new  had  also  spon-  j^^'of d 
taneously  arisen.    The  well-known  variations  of  Greek  theo- 
their  theogony  are  not  merely  similar  legends  losical  ldeas- 
of  different  localities,  they  are  more  frequently  the  succes- 
sive improvements  of  one  place.    The  general  theme  upon 


38  THE   TOPOGRAPHY   AND  [dl.  IL 

which  they  are  based  requires  the  admission  of  a  primitive 
chaotic  disturbance  of  incomprehensible  gigantic  powers, 
brought  into  subjection  by  Divine  agency,  that  agency 
dividing  and  regulating  the  empire  it  had  thus  acquired 
in  a  harmonious  way.  To  this  general  conception  was 
added  a  multitude  of  adventitious  ornaments,  some  of 
which  were  of  a  rude  astronomical,  some  of  a  moral,  some, 
doubtless,  of  a  historical  kind.  The  primitive  chaotic 
conflicts  appear  under  the  form  of  the  war  of  the  Titans  ; 
their  end  is  the  confinement  of  those  giants  in  Tartarus ; 
whose  compulsory  subjection  is  the  commencement  of  order : 
thus  Atlas,  the  son  of  lapetos,  is  made  to  sustain  the  vault 
of  heaven  in  its  western  verge.  The  regulation  of  empire 
is  shadowed  forth  in  the  subdivision  of  the  universe 
The  com-  between  Zeus  and  his  brothers,  he  taking  the 
posit*  nature  heavens,  Poseidon  the  sea,  and  Hades  the  under 
ing  my-  world,  all  having  the  earth  as  their  common 
theatre  of  action.  The  moral  is  prefigured  by 
such  myths  as  those  of  Prometheus  and  Epimetheus,  the 
fore-thinker  and  the  after-thinker ;  the  historical  in  the 
deluge  of  Deucalion,  the  sieges  of  Thebes  and  of  Troy.  A 
harmony  with  human  nature  is  established  through  the 
birth  and  marriage  of  the  gods,  and  likewise  by  their 
sufferings,  passions,  and  labours.  The  supernatural  is 
gratified  by  Centaurs,  Gorgons,  Harpies,  and  Cyclops. 

It  would  bo  in  vain  to  attempt  the  reduction  of  such  a 
patchwork  system  to  any  single  principle,  astronomical 
or  moral,  as  some  have  tried  to  do — a  system  originating 
from  no  single  point  as  to  country  or  to  time.  The 
gradual  growth  of  many  ages,  its  diversities  are  due  to 
many  local  circumstances.  Like  the  romances  of  a  later 
period,  it  will  not  bear  an  application  of  the  ordinary  rules 
of  life.  Tt  recommended  itself  to  a  people  who  found 
pleasure  in  accepting  without  any  question  statements  no 
matter  how  marvellous,  impostures  no  matter  how  prepos- 
terous. Gods,  heroes,  monsters,  and  men  might  figure 
together  without  any  outrage  to  probability  when  there 
was  no  astronomy,  no  geography,  no  rule  of  evidence,  no 
standard  of  belief.  But  the  downfall  of  such  a  system  was 
inevitable  as  soon  as  men  began  to  deal  with  facts  ;  as  soon 
as  history  commenced  to  record,  and  philosophy  to  discuss. 


CH.  II.]  ETHNOLOGY   OF  EUROPE.  39 

Yet  not  without  reluctance  was  the  faith  of  so  many 
centuries  given  up.  The  extinction  of  a  religion  is  not 
the  abrupt  movement  of  a  day,  it  is  a  secular  process  of 
many  well-marked  stages — the  rise  of  doubt  among  the 
candid  ;  the  disapprobation  of  the  conservative ;  the  defence 
of  ideas  fast  becoming  obsolete  by  the  well-meaning,  who 
hope  that  allegory  and  new  interpretations  may  give  re- 
newed probability  to  what  is  almost  incredible.  But 
dissent  ends  in  denial  at  last. 

Before  we  enter  upon  the  history  of  that  intellectual 
movement  which  thus  occasioned  the  ruin  of  the  ancient 
system,  we  must  bring  to  ourselves  the  ideas  of  the  Greek 
of  the  eighth  century  before  Christ,  who  thought  that  the 
blue  sky  is  the  floor  of  heaven,  the  habitation  of  the 
Olympian  gods ;  that  the  earth,  man's  proper  Primitive  as_ 
abode,  is  flat  and  circularly  extended  like  a  tronomyand 
plate  beneath  the  starry  canopy.  On  its  rim  is  B«>graphy. 
the  circumfluous  ocean,  the  source  of  the  rivers,  which  all 
flow  to  the  Mediterranean,  appropriately  in  after  ages  so 
called,  since  it  is  in  the  midst,  in  the  centre  of  the  expanse 
of  the  land.  "  The  sea-girt  disk  of  the  earth  supports  the 
vault  of  heaven."  Impelled  by  a  celestial  energy,  the  sun 
and  stars,  issuing  forth  from  the  east,  ascend  with  diffi- 
culty the  crystalline  dome,  but  down  its  descent  they 
more  readily  hasten  to  their  setting.  No  one  can  tell 
what  they  encounter  in  the  land  of  shadows  beneath,  nor 
what  are  the  dangers  of  the  way.  In  the  morning  the 
dawn  mysteriously  appears  in  the  east,  and  swiftly  spreads 
over  the  confines  of  the  horizon;  in  the  evening  the 
twilight  fades  gradually  away.  Besides  the  celestial 
bodies,  the  clouds  are  continually  moving  over  the  sky, 
for  ever  changing  their  colours  and  their  shape.  No  one 
can  tell  whence  the  wind  comes  or  whither  it  goes ; 
perhaps  it  is  the  breath  of  that  invisible  divinity  who 
launches  the  lightning,  or  of  him  who  rests  his  bow. 
against  the  cloud.  Not  without  delight  men  contemplated 
the  emerald  plane,  the  sapphire  dome,  the  border  of 
silvery  water,  ever  tranquil  and  ever  flowing.  Th 
Then,  in  the  interior  of  the  solid  earth,  or  perhaps  worm  and  its 
on  the  other  side  of  its  plane — under  world,  8Pectres- 
as  it  was  well  termed— is  the  realm  of  Hades  or  Pluto, 


40  THE  TOPOGRAPHY  AND  [CH.  IL 

the  region  of  Night.  From  the  midst  of  his  dominion,  that 
divinity,  crowned  with  a  diadem  of  ebony,  and  seated  on 
a  throne  framed  out  of  massive  darkness,  looks  into  the 
infinite  abyss  beyond,  invisible  himself  to  mortal  eyes,  but 
made  known  by  the  nocturnal  thunder  which  is  his 
weapon.  The  under  world  is  also  the  realm  to  which 
spirits  retire  after  death.  At  its  portals,  beneath  the 
setting  sun,  is  stationed  a  numerous  tribe  of  spectres  — 
Care,  Sorrow,  Disease,  Age,  Want,  PYar,  Famine,  War. 
Toil,  Death  and  her  half-brother  Sleep — Death,  to  whom 
it  is  useless  for  man  to  offer  either  prayers  or  sacrifice, 
In  that  land  of  forgetfulness  and  shadows  there  is  tho 
unnavigable  lake  Avernus,  Acheron,  Styx,  the  groaning 
Cocytus,  and  Phlegethon,  with  its  waves  of  fire.  There 
are  all  kinds  of  monsters  and  forms  of  fearful  import : 
Cerberus,  with  his  triple  head ;  Charon,  freighting  his 
boat  with  the  shades  of  the  dead;  the  Fates,  in  their 
garments  of  ermine  bordered  with  purple;  the  avenging 
Erinnys  ;  Rhadamanthus,  before  whom  every  Asiatic  must 
render  his  account ;  ./Kacus,  before  whom  every  European  ; 
and  Minos,  the  dread  arbiter  of  the  judgment-seat.  There, 
too,  are  to  be  seen  those  great  criminals  whose  history  is  a 
warning  to  us :  the  giants,  with  dragons'  feet  extended  in 
the  burning  gulf  for  many  a  mile ;  Phlegyas,  in  perpetual 
terror  of  the  stone  suspended  over  him,  which  never  falls  ; 
Ixion  chained  to  his  wheel;  the  daughters  of  Danaus  still 
vainly  trjnng  to  fill  their  sieve  ;  Tantalus,  immersed  in 
water  to  his  chin,  yet  tormented  with  unquenchable 
thir.-t ;  Sisyphus  despairingly  labouring  at  his  ever-de- 
scending stone.  Warned  by  such  examples,  we  may  learn 
not  to  contemn  the  gods.  Beyond  these  sad  scenes,  ex- 
tending far  to  the  right,  are  the  plains  of  pleasure,  the 
Klysian  Fields;  and  Lethe,  the  river  of  oblivion,  of  which 
whoever  tastes,  though  he  should  ascend  to  the  eastern 
boundary  of  the  earth,  and  return  again  to  life  and  day, 
forgets  whatever  he  has  seen. 

If  the  interior  or  the  under  side  of  the  earth  is  thus 
occupied  by  phantoms  and  half-animated  shades  of  tho 
dead,  its  upper  surface,  inhabited  by  man,  has  also  its 
wonders.  In  its  centre  is  the  Mediterranean  Sea,  as  wo 
have  said,  round  which  are  placed  all  the  known  countries, 


CH.  II.]  ETHNOLOGY   OF   EUROPE.  41 

each  full  of  its  own  mysteries  and  marvels.  Of  these  how 
many  we  might  recount  if  we  followed  the  wanderings  of 
Odysseus,  or  the  voyage  of  Jason  and  his  heroic  The  Argo- 
comrades  in  the  ship  Argo,  when  they  went  nautic  voyage. 
to  seize  the  golden  fleece  of  the  speaking  ram.  We 
might  tell  of  the  Harpies,  flying  women-birds  of  obscene 
form ;  of  the  blind  prophet ;  of  the  JSyinplegades,  self- 
shutting  rocks,  between  which,  as  if  by  miracle,  the 
Argonauts  passed,  the  cliffs  almost  entrapping  the  stern  of 
their  vessel,  but  destined  by  fate  from  that  portentous 
moment  never  to  close  again ;  of  the  country  of  the 
Amazons,  and  of  Prometheus  groaning  on  the  rock  to 
which  he  was  nailed,  of  the  avenging  eagle  for  ever 
hovering  and  for  ever  devouring ;  of  the  land  of  ^etes, 
and  of  the  bulls  with  brazen  feet  and  flaming  breath,  and 
how  Jason  yoked  and  made  them  plough,  of  the  en- 
chantress Medea,  and  the  unguent  she  concocted  from 
herbs  that  grew  where  the  blood  of  Prometheus  had 
dripped;  of  the  field  sown  with  dragons'  teeth,  and  the 
mail-clad  men  that  leaped  out  of  the  furrows;  of  the 
magical  stone  that  divided  them  into  two  parties,  and 
impelled  them  to  fight  each  other;  of  the  scaly  dragon 
that  guarded  the  golden  fleece,  and  how  he  was  lulled 
with  a  charmed  potion,  and  the  treasure  carried  away ;  of 
the  Eiver  Phasis,  through  whose  windings  the  Argo 
sailed  into  the  circumfluous  sea ,  of  the  circumnavigation 
round  that  tranquil  stream  to  the  sources  of  the  Nile ;  of 
the  Argonauts  carrying  their  sentient,  self-speaking  ship 
on  their  shoulders  through  the  sweltering  Libyan  deserts  , 
of  the  island  of  Circe,  the  enchantress ;  of  the  rock,  with 
its  grateful  haven,  which  in  the  height  of  a  tempest  rose 
out  of  the  sea  to  receive  them ;  of  the  arrow  shot  by 
Apollo  from  his  golden  bow ;  of  the  brazen  man,  the  work 
of  Hephaestos,  who  stood  on  the  shore  of  Crete,  and  hurled  at 
them  as  they  passed  vast  fragments  of  stone;  of  their  combat 
with  him  and  their  safe  return  to  lolcos  ;  and  of  the  trans- 
lation of  the  ship  Argo  by  the  goddess  Athene  to  heaven. 

Such  were  some  of  the  incidents  of  that  celebrated 
voyage,  the  story  of  which  enchanted  all  Greece  before  the 
Odyssey  was  written.  I  have  not  space  to  tell  of  the 
wonders  that  served  to  decorate  the  geography  of  those 


42  THE  TOPOGRAPHY   AND  [CH.  II. 

times.     On  the  north  there  was  the  delicious  country  of 
the  Hyperboreans,  beyond  the  reach  of  winter ; 

Union  of  the      .        , ,    J  r  %  r   , ,        TT  .  , 

geographical  in  the  west  the  garden  of  the  Hesperides,  in 
Senous"Ur  which  grew  apples  of  gold;  in  the  east  tho 
groves  and  dancing-ground  of  the  sun ;  in  tho 
south  the  country  of  the  blameless  Ethiopians,  whither 
the  gods  were  wont  to  resort.  In  the  Mediterranean 
itself  the  Sirens  beguiled  the  passers-by  with  their  songs 
near  where  Naples  now  stands ;  adjoining  were  Scylla  and 
Charybdis ;  in  Sicily  were  the  one-eyed  Cyclops  and 
cannibal  Laestrygons.  In  tho  island  of  Erytheia  the 
three-headed  giant  Geryon  tended  his  oxen  with  a  double- 
headed  dog.  I  need  not  speak  of  the  lotus-eaters,  whoso 
food  made  one  forget  his  native  country ;  of  the  floating 
island  of  ^Eolus ;  of  the  happy  fields  in  which  the  horses 
of  the  sun  were  grazing ;  of  bulls  and  dogs  of  immortal 
breed ;  of  hydras,  gorgons,  and.  chimeras ;  of  the  flying 
man  Daedalus,  and  the  brazen  chamber  in  which  Danae 
was  kept.  There  was  no  river,  no  grotto  that  had  not  its 
genius  ;  no  island,  no  promontory  without  its  legend. 

It  is  impossible  to  recall  these  antique  myths  without 
being  satisfied  that  they  are,  for  the  most  part,  truly 
indigenous,  truly  of  European  growth.  The  seed  may 
have  been  brought,  as  comparative  philologists  assert,  from 
Asia,  but  it  had  luxuriantly  germinated  and  developed 
under  the  sky  of  Europe.  Of  the  legends,  many  are  far 
from  answering  to  their  reputed  Oriental  source;  their 
barbarism  and  indelicacy  represent  the  state  of 
th^iog'iau**  Europe.  The  outrage  of  Kronos  on  his  father 
ideas  indicate  Uranos  speaks  of  the  savagism  of  the  times  ; 

a  savage  state.      ,  f  ,,    T..  •,-,       *>  i  • 

the  story  ot  Dionysos  tells  ot  man-stealing  and 
piracy ;  the  rapes  of  Europa  and  Helen,  of  the  abduc- 
tion of  women.  The  dinner  at  which  Itys  was  served 
up  assures  us  that  cannibalism  was  practised ;  the 
threat  of  Laomedon  that  he  would  sell  Poseidon  and 
Apollo  for  slaves  shows  how  compulsory  labour  might  be 
obtained.  The  polygamy  of  many  heroes  often  appears  in 
its  worst  form  under  the  practice  of  sister-marriage,  a 
crime  indulged  in  from  tho  King  of  Olympus  downward. 
Upon  the  whole,  then,  wo  must  admit  that  Greek  my- 
thology indicates  a  barbarian  social  state,  man-stealing, 


OH.  II.]  ETHNOLOGY   OF  EUROPE.  43 

piracy,  human  sacrifice,  polygamy,  cannibalism,  and  crimes 
of  revenge  that  are  unmentionable.  A  personal  inter- 
pretation, such  as  man  in  his  infancy  resorts  to,  is  em- 
bodied in  circumstances  suitable  to  a  savage  time.  It  was 
not  until  a  later  period  that  allegorical  phantasms,  such 
as  Death,  and  Sleep,  and  Dreams  were  introduced,  and 
still  later  when  the  whole  system  was  affected  by  Lydian, 
Phrygian,  Assyrian,  and  Egyptian  ideas. 

Not  only  thus  from  their  intrinsic  nature,  but  also  from 
their  recorded  gradual  development,  are  we  warranted  in 
imputing  to  the  greater  part  of  the  myths  an  . 
indigenous  origin.  The  theogony  of  Homer  is  improvement 
extended  by  Hesiod  in  many  essential  points.  j?^  historic 
He  prefixes  the  dynasty  of  Uranos,  and  differs 
in  minor  conceptions,  as  in  the  character  of  the  Cyclops. 
The  Orphic  theogony  is  again  another  advance,  having 
new  fictions  and  new  personages,  as  in  the  case  of 
Zagreus,  the  horned  child  of  Jupiter  by  his  own  daughter 
Persephone.  Indeed,  there  is  hardly  one  of  the  great  and 
venerable  gods  of  Olympus  whose  character  does  not 
change  •with  his  age,  and,  seen  from  this  point  of  view, 
the  origin  of  the  Ionic  philosophy  becomes  a  necessary 
step  in  the  advance.  That  philosophy,  as  we 

1     11  ft  i  -\       j.      l.t  The  Inevitable 

shall  soon  niid,  was  due  not  only  to  the  ex-  tendency  is  to 
pansion  of  the  Greek  intellect  and  the  necessary  the  ionic 

f  r\        i  i  philosophy. 

improvement  of  Greek  morals ;   an  extraneous 

cause,  the  sudden  opening  of  the  Egyptian  ports,  670  B.C., 

accelerated  it.   European  religion  became  more  mysterious 

and    more    solemn.      European    philosophy   learned    the 

error   of  its   chronology,    and   the  necessity  of  applying 

a  more  strict  and  correct  standard  of  evidence  for  ancient 

events. 

It  was  an  ominous  circumstance  that  the  Ionian  Greeks, 
who  first  began  to  philosophize,  commenced  their  labours 
by  depersonifying  the  elements,  and  treating  not  of  Zeus, 
Poseidon,  and  Hades,  but  of  Air,  Water,  Fire.  The 
destruction  of  theological  conceptions  led  irresistibly  to 
the  destruction  of  religious  practices.  To  divinities 
whose  existence  he  denied,  the  philosopher  ceased  to 
pray.  Of  what  use  were  sacrificial  offerings  and  entreaties 
directed  to  phantasms  of  the  imagination  ?  but  advantages 


44  THE  TOPOGRAPHY   AND  [CH.  II. 

might  accrue  from  the  physical  study  of  the  impersonal 
elements. 

Greek  religion  contained  within  itself  the  principles  of 
its  own  destruction.  It  is  for  the  sake  of  thoroughly 
appreciating  this  that  I  have  been  led  into  a  detail  of 
what  some  of  my  readers  may  be  disposed  to 
destVurti'on  of  regard  as  idle  and  useless  myths.  Two  circum- 
jjreekre-  stances  of  inevitable  occurrence  insured  the 
eventual  overthrow  of  the  whole  system  ;  they 
were  geographical  discovery  and  the  rise  of  philosophical 
criticism.  Our  attention  is  riveted  by  the  fact  that,  two 
thousand  years  later,  the  same  thing  again  occurred  on  a 
greater  scale. 

As  to  the  geographical  discovery,  how  was  it  possible 
by  geoRraphi-  that  all  the  marvels  of  the  Mediterranean  and 
cai  discovery.  Black  Seas,  the  sorcerers,  enchanters,  giants, 
and  monsters  of  the  deep,  should  survive  when  those  seas 
were  daily  crossed  in  all  directions?  How  was  it  possible 
that  the  notion  of  a  flat  earth,  bounded  by  the  horizon 
and  bordered  by  the  circumfluous  ocean,  could  maintain 
itself  when  colonies  were  being  founded  in  Gaul,  and 
the  Phoenicians  were  bringing  tin  from  beyond  the 
Pillars  of  Hercules?  Moreover,  it  so  happened  that  many 
of  the  most  astounding  prodigies  were  affirmed  to  be  in 
the  track  which  circumstances  had  now  made  the  chief 
pathway  of  commerce.  Not  only  was  there  a  certainty  of 
the  destruction  of  mythical  geography  as  thus  presented 
on  the  plane  of  the  earth  looking  upward  to  day ;  there 
was  also  an  imminent  risk,  as  many  pious  persons  foresaw 
and  dreaded,  that  what  had  been  asserted  as  respects  the 
interior,  or  the  other  face  looking  downward  into  night, 
would  be  involved  in  the  ruin  too.  Well,  therefore,  might 
they  make  the  struggle  they  did  for  the  support  of  the 
ancient  doctrine,  taking  the  only  course  possible  to  them, 
of  converting  what  had  been  affirmed  to  be  actual  events 
into  allegories,  under  which,  they  said,  the  wisdom  of 
ancient  times  had  concealed  many  sacred  and  mysterious 
things.  But  it  is  apparent  that  a  system  forced  to  this 
necessity  is  fast  hastening  to  its  end. 

Nor  was  it  maritime  discovery  only  that  thus  removed 
fabulous  prodigies  and  gave  rise  to  new  ideas.  In  due 


OH.  II. J  ETHNOLOGY  OF   EUROPE.  45 

course  of  time  the  Macedonian  expedition  opened  a  new 
world  to  the  Greeks  and  presented  them  with  real  wonders  ; 
climates  in  marvellous  diversity,  vast  deserts,  pictitioils 
mountains  covered  with  eternal  snow,  salt  seas  marvels  re- 
far  from  the  ocean,  colossal  animals,  and  men  of  fraud  actu- 
every  shade  of  colour  and  every  form  of  religion.  Duties. 
The  numerous  Greek  colonies  founded  all  over  Asia  gave 
rise  to  an  incessant  locomotion,  and  caused  these  natural 
objects  to  make  a  profound  and  permanent  impression  on 
the   Hellenic    mind.      If   through    the   Bactrian   empire 
European  ideas  were  transmitted  to  the  far  East,  through 
that  and  other  similar  channels  Asiatic  ideas  found  their 
way  to  Europe. 

At  the  dawn  of  trustworthy  history,  the  Phoanicians  were 
masters  of  the  Mediterranean  Sea.  Europe  was 
altogether  barbarous.  On  the  very  verge  of  SawK"* 
Asiatic  civilization  the  Thracians  scalped  their  ranean  com- 
enemies  and  tattooed  themselves ;  at  the  other  m 
end  of  the  continent  the  Britons  daubed  their  bodies  with 
ochre  and  woad.  Contemporaneous  Egyptian  sculptures 
show  the  Europeans  dressed  in  skins  like  savages.  It 
was  the  instinct  of  the  Phoenicians  everywhere  to  establish 
themselves  on  islands  and  coasts,  and  thus,  for  a  long  time, 
they  maintained  a  maritime  supremacy.  By  degrees  a 
spirit  of  adventure  was  engendered  among  the  Greeks. 
In  1250  B.C.  they  sailed  round  the  Euxine,  giving  rise  to 
the  myth  of  the  Argonautic  voyage,  and  creating  a 
profitable  traffic  in  gold,  dried  fish,  and  corn.  They  had 
also  become  infamous  for  their  freebooting  practices. 
From  every  coast  they  stole  men,  women,  and  children, 
thereby  maintaining  a  considerable  slave-trade,  the  relic 
of  which  endures  to  our  time  in  the  traffic  for  Circassian 
women.  Minos,  King  of  Crete,  tried  to  suppress  these 
piracies.  His  attempts  to-  obtain  the  dominion  of  the 
Mediterranean  were  imitated  in  succession  by  the  Lydians, 
Thracians,  Rhodians,  the  latter  being  the  inventors  of  the 
first  maritime  code,  subsequently  incorporated  into  Roman 
law.  The  manner  in  which  these  and  the  inhabitants  of 
other  towns  and  islands  supplanted  one  another  t^hows  on 
what  trifling  circumstances  the  dominion  of  the  eastern 
basin  depended.  Meantime  Tyrian  seamen  stealthily 


46  THE   TOPOGRAPHY   AND  [CH.  II. 

sailed  beyond  the  Pillars  of  Hercules,  visiting  the  Canaries 
and  Azores,  and  bringing  tin  from  the  British  Islands. 
They  used  every  precaution  to  keep  their  secret  to  them- 
selves. The  adventurous  Greeks  followed  those  mysterious 
navigators  step  by  step  ;  but  in  the  time  of  Homer  they 
were  so  restricted  to  the  eastern  basin  that  Italy  may  be 
said  to  have  been  to  them  an  unknown  land.  The 
Phoceeans  first  explored  the  western  basin;  one  of -their 
colonies  built  Marseilles.  At  length  Coleus  of  Samos 
passed  through  the  frowning  gateway  of  Hercules  into 
the  circumfluous  sea,  the  Atlantic  Ocean.  No  little 
interest  attaches  to  the  first  colonial  cities ;  they  dotted 
the  shores  from  Sinope  to  Saguntum,  and  were  at  once 
trading  depots  and  foci  of  wealth.  In  the  earliest  times 
the  merchant  was  his  own  captain,  and  sold  his  commo- 
dities by  auction  at  the  place  to  which  he  came.  The 
primitive  and  profitable  commerce  of  the  Mediterranean 
was  peculiar — it  was  for  slaves,  mineral  products,  and 
articles  of  manufacture ;  for,  running  coincident  with 
parallels  of  latitude,  its  agricultural  products  were  not 
very  varied,  and  the  wants  of  its  populations  the  same. 
But  tin  was  brought  from  the  Cassiterides,  amber  from 
the  Baltic,  and  dyed  goods  and  worked  metals  from  Syria. 
Wherever  these  trades  centred,  the  germs  of  taste  «'ind 
intelligence  were  developed  ;  thus  the  Etruscans,  in  whose 
hands  was  the  amber  trade  across  Germany,  have  left  many 
relics  of  their  love  of  art.  Though  *  mysterious,  they 
were  hardly  a  gloomy  race,  as  a  great  modern  author  has 
supposed,  if  we  may  judge  from  their  beautiful  remains. 

Added  to  the  effect  of  geographical  discovery  was  the 
Effector  development  of  philosophical  criticism.  It  is 
philosophical  observed  that  soon  after  the  first  Otympiad  ihe 
ISBn'  Greek  intellect  very  rapidly  expanded.  When- 
ever man  reaches  a  certain  point  in  his  mental  progress, 
he  will  not  be  satisfied  with  less  than  an  application  of 
existing  rules  to  ancient  events.  Experience  has  taught 
him  that  the  course  of  the  world  to-day  is  the  same  as  it 
was  yesterday ;  he  unhesitatingly  believes  that  this  will 
also  hold  good  for  to-morrow.  He  will  not  bear  to 
contemplate  any  break  in  the  mechanism  of  history ;  he 
will  not  be  satisfied  with  a  mere  uninquiring  faith,  but 


CO.  II.  ]  ETHNOLOGY   OF  EUROPE.  47 

insists  upon  having  the  same  voucher  for  an  old  fact  that 
he  requires  for  one  that  is  new.  Before  the  face  of  History 
Mythology  cannot  stand. 

The  operation  of  this  principle  is  seen  in  all  directions 
throughout  Greek  literature  after  the  date  that  has  been 
mentioned,  and  this  the  more  strikingly  as  the 
time  is  later.      The   national   intellect  became  iiteraiy'men 
more  and  more  ashamed   of  the  fables  it  had  fro™  tlle. , 

•L    T          j   •       -i     •     f  f\f  At     i  y  public  faith. 

believed  in  its  miancy.  Ot  the  legends,  some  are 
allegorized,  some  are  modified,  some  are  repudiated.  The 
great  tragedians  accept  the  myths  in  the  aggregate,  but 
decline  them  in  particulars ;  some  of  the  poets  transform 
or  allegorize  them  ;  some  use  them  ornamentally,  as  grace- 
ful decorations.  It  is  evident  that  between  the  educated 
and  the  vulgar  classes  a  divergence  is  taking  place, 
that  the  best  men  of  the  times  see  the  necessity  of 
either  totally  abandoning  these  cherished  fictions  to  the 
lower  orders,  or  of  gradually  replacing  them  with  some- 
thing more  suitable.  Such  a  frittering  away  of  sacred 
things  was,  however,  very  far  from  meeting  with  public 
approbation  in  Athens  itself,  although  so  many  people  in 
that  city  had  reached  that  state  of  mental  development  in 
which  it  was  impossible  for  them  to  continue  to  accept  the 
national  faith.  They  tried  to  force  themselves  to  believe 
that  there  must  be  something  true  in  that  which  had  been 
believed  by  so  many  great  and  pious  men  of  old,  which 
had  approved  itself  by  lasting  so  many  centuries,  and  of 
which  it  was  by  the  common  people  asserted  that  absohite 
demonstration  could  be  given.  But  it  was  in  vain ; 
intellect  had  outgrown  faith.  They  had  come  into  that 
condition  to  which  all  men  are  liable — aware  of  the  fallacy 
of  their  opinions,  yet  angry  that  another  should  remind 
them  thereof.  When  the  social  state  no  longer  permitted 
them  to  take  the  life  of  a  philosophical  offender,  they 
found  means  to  put  upon  him  such  an  invisible  pressure 
as  to  present  him  the  choice  of  orthodoxy  or  beggary. 
Thus  they  disapproved  of  Euripides  permitting  his  charac- 
ters to  indulge  in  any  sceptical  reflec'ions,  and  discounte- 
nanced the  impiety  so  obvious  in  the  '  Prometheus  Bound  ' 
of  ^Eschylus.  It  was  by  appealing  to  this  sentiment  that 
Aristophanes  added  no  little  to  the  excitoment  against 


48  THE  TOPOGRAPHY   AND  [dl.  II. 

Socrates.  They  who  are  doubting  themselves  are  often 
loudest  in  public  denunciations  of  a  similar  state  in 
others. 

If  thus  the  poets,  submitting  to  common  sense,  had  so 
rapidly  fallen  away  from  the  national  belief,  the  philoso- 
phers pursued  the  same  course.  It  soon  became  the  universal 
Secession  of  the  impression  that  there  was  an  intrinsic  opposition 
philosophers,  between  philosophy  and  religion,  and  herein 
public  opinion  was  not  mistaken  ;  the  fact  that  polytheism 
furnished  a  religious  explanation  for  every  natural  event 
made  it  essentially  antagonistic  to  science.  It  was  the 
uncontrollable  advance  of  knowledge  that  overthrew  Greek 
religion.  Socrates  himself  never  hesitated  to  denounce 
physics  for  that  tendency;  and  the  Athenians  extended 
his  principles  to  his  own  pursuits,  their  strong  common 
sense  telling  them  that  the  philosophical  cultivation  of 
ethics  must  be  equally  bad.  He  was  not  loyal  to  science, 
but  sought  to  support  his  own  views  by  exciting  a  theo- 
logical odium  against  his  competitors — a  crime  that 
educated  men  ought  never  to  forgive.  In  the  tragedy  that 
ensued  the  Athenians  only  paid  him  in  his  own  coin.  The 
immoralities  imputed  to  the  gods  were  doubtless  strongly 
calculated  to  draw  the  attention  of  reflecting  men,  but  the 
essential  nature  of  the  pursuit  in  which  the  Ionian  and 
Italian  schools  were  engaged  bore  directly  on  the  doctrine 
of  a  providential  government  of  the  world.  It  not  only 
turned  into  a  fiction  the  time-honoured  dogma  of  the 
omnipresence  of  the  Olympian  divinities — it  even  struck 
at  their  very  existence,  by  leaving  them  nothing  to  do. 
For  those  personifications  it  introduced  impersonal  nature 
or  the  elements.  Instead  of  uniting  scientific  interpreta- 
tions to  ancient  traditions,  it  modified  and  moulded  the 
old  traditions  to  suit  the  apparent  requirements  of  science. 
We  shall  subsequently  see  what  was  the  necessary  issue  of 
this — the  Divinity  became  excluded  from  the  world  he  had 
made,  the  supernatural  merged  in  natural  agency;  Zeus 
was  superseded  by  the  air,  Poseidon  by  the  water ;  and 
while  some  of  the  philosophers  received  in  silence  the 
popular  legends,  as  was  the  case  with  Socrates,  or,  like 
Plato,  regarded  it  as  a  patriotic  duty  to  accept  the  public 
faith,  others,  like  Xeuophaues,  denounced  the  whole  as 


CH.  II.]  ETHNOLOGY  OF  EUROPE.  49 

an  ancient  blunder,  converted  by  time   into  a  national 
imposture. 

As  I  shall  have  occasion  to  speak  of  Greek  philosophy  in 
a  detailed  manner,  it  is  unnecessary  to  enter  into  other 
particulars  here.     For  the  present  purpose  it  is  Antagonism  of 
enough    to   understand   that  it    was    radically  science  and 
opposed  to  the  national  faith  in  all  countries  P01^0618111- 
and  at  all  times,  from  its  origin  with  Thales  down  to 
the  latest  critic  of  the  Alexandrian  school. 

As  it  was  with  philosophers,  so  it  was  with  historians ; 
the  rise  of  true  history  brought  the  same  result  secession  of 
as  the  rise  of  true  philosophy.  In  this  instance  historians- 
there  was  added  a  special  circumstance  which  gave 
to  the  movement  no  little  force.  Whatever  might  be 
the  feigned  facts  of  the  Grecian  foretime,  they  were 
altogether  outdone  in  antiquity  and  wonder  by  the  actual 
history  of  Egypt.  What  was  a  pious  man  like  Herodotus 
to  think  when  he  found  that,  at  the  very  period  he  had 
supposed  a  superhuman  state  of  things  in  his  native 
country,  the  ordinary  passage  of  affairs  was  taking  place 
on  the  banks  of  the  Kile  ?  And  so  indeed  it  had  been  for 
untold  ages.  To  every  one  engaged  in  recording  recent 
events,  it  must  have  been  obvious  that  a  chronology 
applied  where  the  actors  are  superhuman  is  altogether 
without  basis,  and  that  it  is  a  delusion  to  transfer  the 
motives  and  thoughts  of  men  to  those  who  are  not  men. 
Under  such  circumstances  there  is  a  strong  inducement  to 
decline  traditions  altogether;  for  no  philosophical  mind 
will  ever  be  satisfied  with  different  tests  for  the  present 
and  the  past,  but  will  insist  that  actions  and  their  sequences 
were  the  same  in  the  foretime  as  now. 

Thus  for  many  ages  stood  affairs.     One  after  another, 
historians,  philosophers,  critics,  poets,  had  given  up  the 
national  faith,  and  lived  under  a  pressure  perpetually  laid 
upon   them   by  the  public,  adopting  generally,  as  their 
most  convenient  course,  an  outward  compliance  with  the 
religious  requirements  of  the  state.     Herodotus  universaldis 
cannot  reconcile  the  inconsistencies  of  the  Trojan  belief  of  the 
War  with  his  knowledge  of  human    actions ;  learned- 
Thucydides  does  not  dare  to  express  his  disbelief  of  it ; 
Eratosthenes  sees  contradictions   between   the  voyage  of 

VOL.  I.— 4 


50  THE   TOPOGRAPHY   AND  [CH.  II. 

Odysseus  and  the  truths  of  geography ;  Anaxagoras  is 
condemned  to  death  for  impiety,  and  only  through  the 
exertions  of  the  chief  of  the  state  is  his  sentence  mercifully 
commuted  to  banishment.  Plato,  seeing  things  from  a  very 
general  point  of  view,  thinks  it  expedient,  upon  the  whole, 
to  prohibit  the  cultivation  of  the  higher  branches  of  physics. 
Euripides  tries  to  free  himself  from  the  imputation  of 
heresy  as  best  he  may.  ^Eschylus  is  condemned  to  be 
stoned  to  death  for  blasphemy,  and  is  only  saved  by  his 
brother  Aminias  raising  his  mutilated  arm — he  had  lost  his 
hand  in  the  battle  of  Salamis.  Socrates  stands  his  trial,  and 
has  to  drink  hemlock.  Even  great  statesmen  like  Pericles 
had  become  entangled  in  the  obnoxious  opinions.  No  one 
has  anything  to  say  in  explanation  of  the  marvellous  dis- 
appearance of  demigods  and  heroes,  why  miracles  are 
ended,  or  why  human  actions  alone  are  now  to  be  seen  in 
the  world.  An  ignorant  public  demands  the  instant  punish- 
ment of  every  siispected  man.  In  their  estimation,  to 
distrust  the  traditions  of  the  past  is  to  be  guilty  of  treason 
to  the  present. 

But  all  this  confusion  and  dissent  did  not  arise  without 
Attempts  at  a  an  attempt  among  well-meaning  men  at  a  refor- 
rcformation.  mation.  Some,  and  they  were,  perhaps,  the 
most  advanced  intellectually,  wished  that  the  priests  should 
abstain  from  working  any  more  miracles ;  that  relics 
should  be  as  little  used  as  was  consistent  with  the 
psychical  demands  of  the  vulgar,  and  should  be  gradually 
abandoned  ;  that  philosophy  should  no  longer  be  outraged 
with  the  blasphemous  anthropomorphisms  of  the  Olympian 
deities.  Some,  less  advanced,  were  disposed  to  reconcile 
all  difficulties  by  regarding  the  myths  as  allegorical ;  some 
wished  to  transform  them  so  as  to  bring  them  into  harmony 
with  the  existing  social  state;  some  would  give  them 
altogether  new  interpretations.  With  one,  though  the 
fact  of  a  Trojan  War  is  not  to  be  denied,  it  was  only  the 
eidolon  of  Helen  whom  Paris  carried  away ;  with  another 
expressions,  perhaps  once  intended  to  represent  actual 
events,  are  dwindled  into  mere  forms  of  speech.  Un- 
willing to  reject  the  attributes  of  the  Olympian  divinities, 
their  human  passions  and  actions,  another  asserts  that 
they  must  once  have  all  existed  as  men.  While  one 


CH.  II.]  ETHNOLOGY  OF  EUROPE.  51 

denounces  the  impudent  atheists  who  find  fault  with  the 
myths  of  the  Iliad,  ignorant  of  its  allegorical  meaning, 
another  resolves  all  its  heroes  into  the  elements ;  and  still 
another,  hoping  to  reconcile  to  the  improved  moral  sense 
of  the  times  the  indecencies  and  wickednesses  of  the  gods, 
imputes  them  all  to  demons ;  an  idea  which  found  much 
favour  at  first,  but  became  singularly  fatal  to  polytheism 
in  the  end. 

In  apparent  inconsistency  with  this  declining  state  of 
belief  in  the  higher  classes,  the  multitude,  without 
concern,  indulged  in  the  most  surprising  super- 
stitions. With  them  it  was  an  age  of  relics,  of  perstuionof 
weeping  statues,  and  winking  pictures.  The  thcvulsar- 
tools  with  which  the  Trojan  horse  was  made  might  still 
be  seen  at  Metapontum,  the  sceptre  of  Pelops  was  still 
preserved  at  Chseroneia,  the  spear  of  Achilles  at  Phaselis, 
the  sword  of  Memnon  at  JSicomedia ;  the  Tegeates  could 
still  show  the  hide  of  the  Calydonian  boar,  very  many 
cities  boasted  their  possession  of  the  true  palladium  from 
Troy.  There  were  statues  of  Athene  that  could  brandish 
spears,  paintings  that  could  blush,  images  that  could 
sweat,  and  numberless  shrines  and  sanctuaries  at  which 
miracle-cures  were  performed.  Into  the  hole  through 
which  the  deluge  of  Deucalion  receded  the  Athenians  still 
poured  a  customary  sacrifice  of  honey  and  meal.  He 
would  have  been  an  adventurous  man  who  risked  any 
observation  as  to  its  inadequate  size.  And  though  the 
sky  had  been  proved  to  be  only  space  and  stars,  and  not 
the  firm  floor  of  Olympus,  he  who  had  occasion  to  refer  to 
the  flight  of  the  gods  from  mountain  tops  into  ^^  jealous 
heaven  would  find  it  to  his  advantage  to  make  intolerance  or 
no  astronomical  remark.  Ko  adverse  allusions  dc 
to  the  poems  of  Homer,  Arctinus,  or  Leschos  were 
tolerated ;  he  who  perpetrated  the  blasphemy  of  deper- 
sonifying  the  sun  went  in  peril  of  death.  It  was  not 
permitted  that  natural  phenomena  should  be  substituted 
for  Zeus  and  Poseidon ;  whoever  was  suspected  of  believing 
that  Helios  and  Selene  were  not  gods,  would  do  well 
to  purge  himself  to  public  satisfaction.  The  people  vindi- 
cated their  superstition  in  spite  of  all  geographical  and 
physical  difficulties,  and,  far  from  concerning  themselves 


52  THE   TOPOGRAPHY  AND  [dl.  II. 

with  the  contradictions  which  had  exerted  such  an 
influence  on  the  thinking  classes,  practically  asserted  the 
needlessness  of  any  historical  evidence. 

It  is  altogether  erroneous  to  suppose  that    polytheism 

mantained  its  ground  as  a  living  force  until  the 

thTdechne      period  of  Constantino  and  Julian.     Its  downfall 

and  full  of       commenced  at  the  time  of  the  opening  of  the 

Polytheism.       _.  .  .,        ,  ,  -> 

tigyptian  ports.  .Nearly  a  thousand  years  were 
required  for  its  consummation.  The  change  first  occurred 
among  the  higher  classes,  and  made  its  way  slowly 
through  the  middle  ranks  of  society.  For  many  centuries 
the  two  agencies— geographical  discovery,  arising  from 
increasing  commerce  and  the  Macedonian  expedition, 
and  philosophical  criticism — silently  continued  their  in- 
cessant work,  and  yet  it  does  not  appear  that  they  could 
ever  produce  a  change  in  the  lowest  and  most  numerous 
division  of  the  social  grade.  In  process  of  time,  a  third 
influence  was  added  to  the  preceding  two,  enabling  them 
to  address  themselves  even  to  the  humblest  rank  of  life ; 
Thesecondary  ^"8  influence  was  the  rise  of  the  Roman  power, 
causes  of  its  It  produced  a  wonderful  activity  all  over  the 
downfall.  Mediterranean  Sea  and  throughout  the  adjoining 
countries.  It  insured  perpetual  movements  in  all  direc- 
tions. Where  there  had  been  only  a  single  traveller  there 
were  now  a  thousand  legionaries,  merchants,  government 
officials,  with  their  long  retinues  of  dependents  and  slaves. 
Where  formerly  it  was  only  the  historian  or  philosopher 
in  his  retirement  who  compared  or  contrasted  the  laws 
and  creeds,  habits  and  customs  of  different  nations 
incorrectly  reported,  now  the  same  things  were  vividly 
brought  under  the  personal  observation  of  multitudes. 
The  crowd  of  gods  and  goddesses  congregated  in  Rome 
served  .only  to  bring  one  another  into  disrepute  and 
ridicule. 

Long,  therefore,  previous  to  the  triumph  of  Christianity, 
paganism  must  be  considered  as  having  been  iiretrievably 
ruined.  Doubtless  it  was  the  dreadful  social  prospect 
The  alarm  of  ^^ore  them — the  apparent  impossibility  of  pre- 
good  and  re-  venting  the  whole  world  from  falling  into  a 
ugious  mm.  totally  g^less  state,  that  not  only  reconciled  so 
many  great  men  to  give  their  support  to  the  ancient  system, 


[CH.  II.  ETHNOLOGY  OF  EUROPE.  53 

but  even  to  look  without  disapprobation  on  that  physical 
violence  to  which  the  uneducated  multitude,  incapable  of 
judging,  were  so  often  willing  to  resort.  They  never 
anticipated  that  any  new  system  could  be  introduced 
which  should  take  the  place  of  the  old,  worn-out  one; 
they  had  no  idea  that  relief  in  this  respect  was  so  close  at 
hand ;  unless,  perhaps,  it  might  have  been  Plato,  Plato>s  re_ 
who,  profoundly  recognizing  that,  though  it  is  a  medy  for  the 
hard  and  tedious  process  to  change  radically  the  e^u' 
ideas  of  common  men,  yet  that  it  is  easy  to  persuade  them 
to  accept  new  names  if  they  are  permitted  to  retain  old 
things,  proposed  that  a  regenerated  system  should  be 
introduced,  with  ideas  and  forms  suited  to  the  existing 
social  state,  prophetically  asserting  that  the  world  would 
very  soon  become  accustomed  to  it,  and  give  to  it  an 
implicit  adhesion. 

In  this  description  of  the  origin  and  decline  of  Greek 
religion  I  have  endeavoured  to  bring  its  essential  features 
into  strong  relief.  Its  fall  was  not  sudden,  as  many  have 
supposed,  neither  was  it  accomplished  by  extraneous 
violence.  There  was  a  slow,  and,  it  must  be  emphatically 
added,  a  spontaneous  decline.  But,  if  the  affairs  of  men 
pass  in  recurring  cycles — if  the  course  of  events  with  one 
individual  has  a  resemblance  to  the  course  of  -p^  Greek 
events  with  another — if  there  be  analogies  in  movement  has 
the  progress  of  nations,  and  circumstances  re-  ^  grater d 
appear  after  due  periods  of  time,  the  succession  scale  by  ail 
of  events  thus  displayed  before  us  in  the  E 
intellectual  history  of  Greece  may  perhaps  be  recognised 
again  in  grander  proportions  on  the  theatre  of  all  Europe. 
If  there  is  for  the  human  mind  a  predetermined  order 
of  development,  may  we  not  reasonably  expect  that  the 
phenomena  we  have  thus  been  noticing  on  a  small  scale  in 
a  single  nation  will  reappear  on  the  great  scale  in  a 
continent ;  that  the  philosophical  study  of  this  history  of 
the  past  will  not  only  serve  as  an  interpretation  of  many 
circumstances  in  the  history  of  Europe  in  the  Dark  and 
Middle  Ages,  but  will  also  be  a  guide  to  us  in  pointing 
out  future  events  as  respects  all  mankind  ?  For,  though 
it  is  true  that  the  Greek  intellectual  movement  was 
anticipated,  as  respects  its  completion,  by  being  enveloped 


54  THE  TOPOGRAPHY   AND  [CH.  II. 

and  swallowed  up  in  the  slower  but  more  gigantic  move- 
ments of  the  southern  European  mind,  just  as  a  little 
expanding  circle  upon  the  sea  may  be  obliterated  and 
borne  away  by  more  imposing  and  impetuous  waves,  so 
even  the  movement  of  a  continent  may  be  lost  in  the 
movement  of  a  world.  It  was  criticism  and  physical 
discovery,  and  intellectual  activity,  arising  from  political 
concentration,  that  so  profoundly  affected  the  modes  of 
Grecian  thought,  and  criticism  and  discovery  have  within 
the  last  four  hundred  years  done  the  same  in  all  Europe. 
To  one  who  forms  his  expectations  of  the  future  from  the 
history  of  the  past — who  recalls  the  effect  produced  by  tho 
establishment  of  the  Eoman  empire,  in  permitting  free 
personal  intercommunication  among  all  the  Mediterranean 
nations,  and  thereby  not  only  destroying  the  ancient 
forms  of  thought  which  for  centuries  had  resisted  all 
other  means  of  attack,  but  also  replacing  them  by  a  homo- 
geneous idea — it  must  be  apparent  that  the  wonderfully 
increased  facilities  for  locomotion,  the  inventions  of  our 
own  age,  are  tho  ominous  precursors  of  a  vast  philosophical 
revolution. 

Between  that  period  during  which  a  nation  has  been 
governed  by  its  imagination  and  that  in  which  it  submits 
to  reason,  there  is  a  melancholy  interval.  The  constitu- 
The  organiza-  ^on  °^  man  *s  such  that,  for  a  long  time  after 
tionofbypo-  he  has  discovered  the  incorrectness  of  the  ideas 
prevailing  around  him,  he  shrinks  from  openly 
emancipating  himself  from  their  dominion,  and,  con- 
strained by  the  force  of  circumstances,  he  becomes  a 
hypocrite,  publicly  applauding  what  his  private  judg- 
ment condemns.  Where  a  nation  is  making  this  passage, 
so  universal  do  these  practices  become  that  it  may  be 
truly  said  hypocrisy  is  organized.  It  is  possible  that 
whole  communities  might  be  found  living  in  this  de- 
plorable state.  Such,  I  conceive,  must  have  been  the  case 
in  many  parts  of  the  Roman  empire  just  before  the  intro- 
duction of  Christianity.  Even  after  ideas  have  given 
way  in  public  opinion,  their  political  power  may  outlive 
their  intellectual  vigour,  and  produce  the  disgraceful  effect 
we  here  consider. 

It  is  not  to  be  concealed,  however,  that,  to  some  extent, 


CH.  II.]  ETHNOLOGY  OF  EUROPE.  55 

this  evil  is  incident  to  the  position  of  things.  Indeed,  it 
would  be  unfortunate  if  national  hypocrisy  could  not  find 
a  better  excuse  for  itself  than  in  that  of  the  individual.  In 
civilized  life,  society  is  ever  under  the  imperious  necessity 
of  moving  onward  in  legal  forms,  nor  can  such  forms  be 
avoided  without  the  most  serious  disasters  ensuing.  To 
absolve  communities  too  abruptly  from  the  restraints  of 
ancient  ideas  is  not  to  give  them  liberty,  but  to  throw 
them  into  political  vagabondism,  and  hence  it  is  that 
great  statesmen  will  authorize  and  even  compel  ob- 
servances the  essential  significance  of  which  has  dis- 
appeared, and  the  intellectual  basis  of  which  has  been 
undermined.  Truth  reaches  her  full  action  by  degrees, 
and  not  at  once ;  she  first  operates  upon  the  reason,  the 
influence  being  purely  intellectual  and  individual ;  she 
then  extends  her  sphere,  exerting  a  moral  control,  par- 
ticularly through  public  opinion ;  at  last  she  gathers  for 
herself  physical  and  political  force.  It  is  in  the  time 
consumed  in  this  gradual  passage  that  organized  hypocrisy 
prevails.  To  bring  nations  to  surrender  themselves  to 
new  ideas  is  not  the  affair  of  a  day. 


CHAPTER  III. 

DIGRESSION  ON  HINDU  THEOLOGY  AND  EGYPTIAN 
CIVILIZATION. 

Comparative  Theology  of  India;  its  Phase  of  Sorcery ;  its  Anthropo- 
centric  Phase. 

VEDAISM  the  Contemplation  of  Matter,  or  Adoration  of  Nature,  set 
forth  in  the  Vedas  and  Institutes  of  Menu. — The  Universe  i*  God. — 
Transmutation  of  the  World.  —  Dor-trine  of  Emanation.— Transmigra- 
tion.—  Absorption.  —  Penitential  Services.  —  Happiness  in  Absolute 
Quietude. 

BUDDHISM  the  Contemplation  of  Force. — The  supreme  impersonal  Power. 
— Nature  of  the  World — of  Man. — The,  Passage  of  every  thing  to 
Nonentity. — Development  of  Buddhism  into  a  rast  monastic  System 
marked  by  intense  Selfishness. — Its  practical  Godlessness. 

EGYPT  a  mysterious  Country  to  the  old  Europeans. — Its  History,  great 
public  Works,  and  foreign  Relations. — Antiquity  of  its  Civilization  and 
Art. — Its  Philosophy,  hieroglyphic  Literature,  and  peculiar  Agriculture. 

Rise  of  Civilization  in  rainless  Countries. —  Geography,  Geology,  and 
Topography  of  Egypt.  —  The  Inundations  of  the  Nile  lead  to 
Astronomy. 

Comparative  Theology  of  Egypt. — Animal  Worship,  Star  Worship. — 
Impersonation  of  Divine  Attributes — Pantheism. — The  Trinities  of 
Egypt.  —  Incarnation.  —  Redemption.  —  Future  Judgment.  —  Trial  of 
the  Dead. — Rituals  and  Ceremonies. 

AT  this  stage  of  our  examination  of  European  intellectual 
development,  it  will  be  proper  to  consider  briefly  two 
foreign  influences — Indian  and  Egyptian — which  aifected 
it. 

From  the  relations  existing  between  the  Hindii  and 
European  families,  as  described  in  the  preceding  chapter, 
or  Hindu  a  comparison  of  their  intellectual  progress 
philosophy,  presents  no  little  interest.  The  movement  of 
the  elder  branch  indicates  the  path  through  which  the 
younger  is  travelling,  and  the  goal  to  which  it  tends.  In 


CII.  III.]  ON   HINDU   THEOLOGY.  57 

the  advanced  condition  tinder  which  we  live  we  notice 
Oriental  ideas  perpetually  emerging  in  a  fragmentary  way 
from  the  obscurities  of  modern  metaphysics — they  are  the 
indications  of  an  intellectual  phase  through  which  the 
Indo-European  mind  must  pass.  And  when  we  consider 
the  ready  manner  in  which  these  ideas  have  been  adopted 
throughout  China  and  the  entire  East,  we  may,  perhaps, 
extend  our  conclusion  from  the  Indo-European  family  to 
the  entire  human  race.  From  this  we  may  also  infer  how 
unphilosophical  and  vain  is  the  expectation  of  those  who 
would  attempt  to  restore  the  aged  populations  of  Asia  to 
our  state.  Their  intellectual  condition  has  passed  onward, 
never  more  to  return.  It  remains  for  them  only  to 
advance  as  far  as  they  may  in  their  own  line  and  to  die, 
leaving  their  place  to  others  of  a  different  constitution  and 
of  a  renovated  blood.  In  life  there  is  no  going  back  ;  the 
morose  old  man  can  never  resume  the  genial  confidence  of 
maturity ;  the  youth  can  never  return  to  the  idle  and  use- 
less occupations,  the  frivolous  amusements  of  boyhood ; 
even  the  boy  is  parted  by  a  long  step  from  the  innocent 
credulity  of  the  nursery. 

The  earlier  stages  of  the  comparative  theology  of  India 
are  now  inaccessible.  At  a  time  so  remote  as  to  be 
altogether  prehistoric  the  phase  of  sorcery  had 

,  j     ,  T_  i_        T        At-  •       M.   The  phase  of 

been    passed   through.     In    the    most    ancient  sorcery,  and 
records  remaining   the  Hindu  mind  is  dealing  anthropocen- 

.,,,,'?.  &   trie  phase. 

with  anthropocentric  conceptions,  not,  however, 
so  much  of  the  physical  as  of  the  moral  kind.  Man  had 
come  to  the  conclusion  that  his  chief  concern  is  with  himself. 
"  Thou  wast  alone  at  the  time  of  thy  birth,  thou  wilt  be 
alone  in  the  moment  of  death ;  alone  thou  must  answer  at 
the  bar  of  the  inexorable  Judge." 

Erom  this  point  there  are   two  well-marked   steps   of 
advance.     The   first   reaches   the  consideration  comparative 
of  material  nature ;  the  second,  which  is  very  theology  ad- 
grandry  and  severely  philosophical,  contemplates  dfrect?ons-^° 
the  universe  under  the  conceptions  of  space  and  Matter> Force- 
force  alone.     The  former  is  exemplified  in  the  Vedas  and 
Institutes  of  Menu,  the  latter  in  Buddhism.     In  neither  of 
these  stages  do  the  ideas  lie  idle  as  mere  abstractions ;  they 
introduce  a  moral  plan,  and  display  a  constructive  power 

4* 


58  ON   HINDU   THEOLOGY  [dl.  III. 

not  equalled  even  by  the  Italian  papal  system.     They  take 
charge  not  only  of  the  individual,  but  regulate 

Vedaism  con-          .  °  a.    u         iv   •     •    *  v  i, 

templates        society,  and  show  their  influence  in  accomplish- 
roattcr,  u«d-    jng    political   organizations,    commanding   our 

dhism  force.  °      -1 .  °,      .  '       .  « 

attention  from  their  prodigious  extent,  »nd 
venerable  for  their  antiquity. 

I  shall,  therefore,  briefly  refer,  first,  to  the  older,  Ve- 
daism, and  then  to  its  successor,  Buddhism. 

Among  a  people  possessing  many  varieties  of  climate, 
and  familiar  with  some  of  the  grandest  aspects  of  Nature 
— mountains  the  highest  upon  earth,  noble  rivers,  a  vegeta- 
tion incomparably  luxuriant,  periodic;tl  rains,  tempestuous 
monsoons,  it  is  not  surprising  that  there  should  have  been 
Vedaism  is  an  admiration  for  the  material,  and  a  tendency 
the  adoration  to  the  worship  of  Nature.  These  spectacles  leave 
nre'  an  indelible  impression  on  the  thoughts  of  man, 
and,  the  more  cultivated  the  mind,  the  more  profound. y 
are  they  appreciated. 

The  Vedas,  -which  are  the  Hindu  Scriptures,  and  of 
which  there  are  four,  the  Rig,  Yagust,  Sanian  and  Athar- 
The  Vedas  van<  are  assertcd  to  have  been  revealed  by 
and  their  Brahma.  The  fourth  is,  however,  rejected  by 
nes'  some  authorities  and  bears  internal  evidence  of 
a  later  composition,  at  a  time  when  hierarchical  power 
had  become  greatly  consolidated.  These  works  are  written 
in  an  obsolete  Sanscrit,  the  parent  of  the  more  recent 
idiom.  They  constitute  the  basis  of  an  extensive  literature, 
Upavedas,  Angas,  &c.,  of  connected  works  and  commen- 
taries. For  the  most  part  they  consist  of  hymns  suitable 
for  public  and  private  occasions,  prayers,  precepts,  legends, 
and  dogmas.  The  Rig,  which  is  the  oldest,  is  composed 
chiefly  of  hymns,  the  other  three  of  liturgical  formulas. 
They  are  of  different  periods  and  of  various  authorship, 
internal  evidence  seeming  to  indicate  that  if  the  later 
were  composed  by  priests,  the  earlier  were  the  production 
of  military  chieftains.  They  answer  to  a  state  of  society 
advanced  from  the  nomad  to  the  municipal  condition. 
They  are  based  upon  an  acknowledgment  of  a  universal 
TheVedadoc-  Spirit  pervading  all  things.  Of  this  God  they 
trine  of  God,  therefore  necessarily  acknowledge  the  unity: 
"There  is  in  trnth  but  one  Deity,  the  Supreme  Spirit,  the 


OH.  HI.]  AND  EGYPTIAN   CIVILIZATION.  59 

Lord  of  the  universe,  whose  work  is  the  universe."  "  The 
God  above  all  gods,  who  created  the  earth,  the  and  of  the 
heavens,  the  waters."  The  world,  thus  con-  world- 
sidered  as  an  emanation,  of  God,  is  therefore  a  part  of  him  ; 
it  is  kept  in  a  visible  state  by  his  energy,  and  would 
instantly  disappear  if  that  energy  were  for  a  moment 
withdrawn.  Even  as  it  is,  it  is  undergoing  unceasing 
transformations,  every  thing  being  in  a  transitory  condi- 
tion. The  moment  a  given  phase  is  reached,  it  is  departed 
from,  or  ceases.  In  these  perpetual  movements  the  present 
can  scarcely  be  said  to  have  any  existence,  for  as  the  Past 
is  ending  the  Future  has  begun. 

In  such  a  never-ceasing  career  all  material  things  are 
urged,  their  forms  continually  changing,  and  returning 
as  it  were,  through  revolving  cycles  to  similar  states. 
For  this  reason  it  is  that  we  may  regard  our  earth,  and 
the  various  celestial  bodies,  as  having  had  a  its  transfur- 
moment  of  birth,  as  having  a  time  of  continuance,  uuitioa- 
in  which  they  are  passing  onward  to  an  inevitable  destruc- 
tion, and  that  after  the  lapse  of  countless  ages  similar 
progresses  will  be  made,  and  similar  series  of  events  will 
occur  again  and  again. 

But  in  this  doctrine  of  universal  transformation  there  is 
something  more  than  appears  at  first.  The  theology  of 
India  is  underlaid  with  Pantheism.  "  God  is  One  because 
he  is  All."  The  Vedas,  in  speaking  of  the  rela-  lt  ig  the  vlsj, 
tion  of  nature  to  God,  make  use  of  the  expression  semblance  of 
that  he  is  the  Material  as  well  as  the  Cause  of  God< 
the  universe,  "  the  Clay  as  well  as  the  Potter."  They 
convey  the  idea  that  while  there  is  a  pervading  spirit 
existing  everywhere  of  the  same  nature  as  the  soul  of 
man,  though  differing  from  it  infinitely  in  degree,  visible 
nature  is  essentially  and  inseparably  connected  therewith ; 
that  as  in  man  the  body  is  perpetually  undergoing  changes, 
perpetually  decaying  and  being  renewed,  or,  as  in  the  case 
of  the  whole  human  species,  nations  come  into  existence 
and  pass  away,  yet  still  there  continues  to  exist  what  may 
be  termed  the  universal  human  mind,  so  for  ever  associated 
and  for  ever  connected  are  the  material  and  the  spiritual. 
And  under  this  aspect  we  must  contemplate  the  Supreme 
Being,  not  merely  as  a  presiding  intellect,  but  as  illustrated 


60  ON   HINDU   THEOLOGY  [CH.  Ill 

by  the  parallel  case  of  man,  -whose  mental  principle  shows 
no  tokens  except  through  its  connexion  with  the  body ; 
so  matter,  or  nature,  or  the  visible  universe,  is  to  be  looked 
upon  as  the  corporeal  manifestation  of  God. 

Secular  changes  taking  place  invisible  objects,  especially 
those  of  an  astronomical  kind,  thus  stand  as  the  gigantic 
The  nature  of  counterparts  both  as  to  space  and  time  of  tho 
mundane  microscopic  changes  which  we  recognize  as 
occurring  in  the  body  of  man.  However,  in 
adopting  these  views  of  the  relations  of  material  nature 
and  spirit,  we  must  continually  bear  in  mind  that  matter 
"  has  no  essence  independent  of  mental  perception  ;  that 
existence  and  perceptibility  are  convertible  terms ;  that 
external  appearances  and  sensations  are  illusory,  and 
would  vanish  into  nothing  if  the  divine  energy  which 
alone  sustains  them  were  suspended  but  for  a  moment." 

As  to  the  relation  between  the  Supreme  Being  and  man, 
or  the  soui  of  the  soul  is  a  portion  or  particle  of  that  all- 
pervading  principle,  the  Universal  Intellect  or 
Soul  of  the  World,  detached  for  a  while  from  its  primitive 
source,  and  placed  in  connexion  with  the  bodily  frame, 
but  destined  by  an  inevitable  necessity  sooner  or  later  to 
be  restored  and  rejoined — as  inevitably  as  rivers  run 
back  to  be  lost  in  the  ocean  from  which  they  arose. 
"  That  Spirit,"  says  Varuna  to  his  son,  "  from  which  all 
created  beings  proceed,  in  which,  having  proceeded,  they 
its  final  ab-  ^ve'  toward  which  they  tend,  and  in  which  they 
sorption  in  are  at  last  absorbed,  that  Spirit  study  to  know  : 
it  is  the  Great  One."  Since  a  multitude  of  moral 
considerations  assure  us  of  the  existence  of  evil  in  the  world, 
and  since  it  is  not  possible  for  so  holy  a  thing  as  the  spirit 
of  man  to  be  exposed  thereto  without  undergoing  contami- 
nation, it  comes  to  pass  that  an  unfitness  may  be  contracted 
for  its  rejoining  the  infinitely  pure  essence  from  which  it 
was  derived,  and  hence  arises  the  necessity  of  its  under- 
Of  purifying  going  a  course  of  purification.  And  as  the  life  of 
penances,  man  js  often  too  short  to  afford  the  needful  oppor- 
tunity, and,  indeed,  its  events,  in  many  instances,  tend 
rather  to  increase  than  to  diminish  the  stain,  the  season 
of  purification  is  prolonged  by  perpetuating  a  connexion 
of  the  sinful  spirit  with  other  forms,  and  permitting  its 


CH.  III.]  AND  EGYPTIAN"  CIVILIZATION.  61 

transmigration  to  other  bodies,  in  which,  by  the  penance 
it   undergoes,  and  the  trials  to  which  it  is  ex- 

i      •,°  .     .        .,  i  i     j  i    and  trans- 

posed, its  iniquity  may  be  washed  away,    and  migration  of 

satisfactory  preparation  be  made  for  its  absorp-  souls- 
tion  in  the  ocean  of  infinite  purity.  Considering  thus  the 
relation  in  which  all  animated  nature  stands  to  us,  being 
a  mechanism  for  purification,  this  doctrine  of  the  transmi- 
gration of  the  soul  leads  necessarily  to  other  doctrines  of 
a  moral  kind,  more  particularly  to  a  profound  respect  for 
life  under  every  form,  human,  animal,  or  insect. 

•The  forms  of  animal  life,  therefore,  furnish  a  grand 
penitential  mechanism  for  man.  Such,  on  these  ,- 

*    .  .  11-1  i  •  1  he  religious 

principles,  is  their  teleological  explanation.  In  use  of  animal 
European  philosophy  there  is  no  equivalent  or  llfi- 
counterpart  of  this  view.  With  us  animal  life  is  purpose- 
less. Hereafter  we  shall  find  that  in  Egypt,  though  the 
doctrine  of  transmigration  must  of  course  have  tended  to 
similar  suggestions,  it  became  disturbed  in  its  practical 
application  by  the  base  fetich  notions  of  the  indigenous 
African  population.  Hence  the  doctrine  was  cherished  by 
the  learned  for  philosophical  reasons,  and  by  the  multitude 
for  the  harmony  of  its  results  with  their  idolatries. 

From  such  theological  dogmas  a  religious  system  ob- 
viously springs  having  for  its  object  to  hasten  the  puri- 
fication of  the  soul,  that  it  may  the  more  quickly  enter  on 
absolute  happiness,  which  is  only  to  be  found  in  absolute 
rest.     The  methods  of  shortening  its  wanderings  and  bring- 
ing it  to  repose  are   the  exercises  of  a  pious  Ofproper 
life,   penance,  and  prayer,  and  more  especially  modes  of  de- 
a    profound    contemplation    of    the    existence  v< 
and  attributes  of  the  Supreme  Being.     In  this  profound 
contemplation  many  holy  men  have  passed  their  lives. 

Such  is  a  brief  statement  of  Vedic  theology,  as  exhibited 
in  the  connected  doctrines  of  the  Nature  of  God,  Universal 
Animation,  Transmutation  of  the  World,  Emanation  of 
the  Soul,  Manifestation  of  Visible  Things,  Transmigration, 
Absorption,  the  uses  of  Penitential  Services,  and  Con- 
templation for  the  attainment  of  Absolute  Happiness  in 
Absolute  Rest.  The  Vedas  also  recognize  a  series  of 
creatures  superior  to  man,  the  gods  of  the  elements  and 
stars ;  they  likewise  personify  the  attributes  of  the  Deity. 


62  ON   HrXDU  THEOLOGY  [cil.  III. 

The  three  Vedic  divinities,  Agni,  Indra,  and  Surya,  are 
not  to  be  looked  upon  as  existing  independently,  for  all 
Minor  Vedic  spirits  are  comprehended  in  the  Universal  Soul, 
doctrines.  The  later  Hindu  trinity,  Brahma,  Vishnu,  and 
Siva,  is  not  recognized  by  them.  They  do  not  authorize 
the  worship  of  deified  men,  nor  of  images,  nor  of  any 
visible  forms.  They  admit  the  adoration  of  subordinate 
spirits,  as  those  of  the  planets,  or  of  the  demigods  who 
inhabit  the  air,  the  waters,  the  woods ;  these  demigods 
are  liable  to  death.  They  inculcate  universal  charity — 
charity  even  to  an  enemy  :  "  The  tree  doth  not  withdraw 
its  shade  from  the  woodcutter."  Prayers  are  to  be  made 
thrice  a  day,  morning,  noon,  evening ;  fasting  is  ordained, 
and  ablution  before  meals ;  the  sacrificial  offerings  consist 
of  flowers,  fruits,  money.  Considered  as  a  whole  their 
religious  tendency  is  selfish  :  it  puts  in  prominence  the 
baser  motives,  and  seeks  the  gratification  of  the  animal 
appetites,  as  food,  pleasure,  good  fortune.  They  suggest 
no  proselyting  spirit,  but  rather  adopt  the  principle  that 
all  religions  must  be  equally  acceptable  to  God,  since,  if  it 
were  otherwise,  he  would  have  instituted  a  single  one, 
and,  considering  his  omnipotence,  none  other  could  have 
possibly  prevailed.  They  contain  no  authorization  of  the 
division  of  castes,  which  probably  had  arisen  in  the  neces- 
sities of  antecedent  conquests,  but  which  have  imposed  a 
perpetual  obstacle  to  any  social  progress,  keeping  each 
class  of  society  in  an  immovable  state,  and  concentrating 
knowledge  and  power  in  a  hierarchy.  Neither  in  them, 
nor,  it  is  affirmed,  in  the  whole  Indian  literature,  is  there 
a  single  passage  indicating  a  love  of  liberty.  The  Asiatics 
cannot  understand  what  value  there  is  in  it.  They  have 
balanced  Freedom  against  Security ;  they  have  delibe- 
rately preferred  the  latter,  and  left  the  former  for  Europe 
to  sigh  for.  Liberty  is  alone  appreciated  in  a  life  of 
action ;  biit  the  life  of  Asia  is  essentially  passive,  its 
desire  is  for  tranquillity.  Some  have  affirmed  that  this 
imbecility  is  due  to  the  fact  that  that  continent  has  no  true 
temperate  zone,  and  that  thus,  for  ages,  the  weak  nations 
have  been  in  contact  with  the  strong,  and  therefore  the 
hopeless  aspirations  for  personal  freedom  have  become  ex- 
tinct. But  nations  that  are  cut  oS'  from  the  sea,  or  that 


CH.  III.]  AND  EGYPTIAN   CIVILIZATION.  63 

have  accepted  the  dogma  that  to  travel  upon  it  is  unholy, 
can  never  comprehend  liberty.  From  the  general  tenor 
of  the  Vedas,  it  would  appear  that  the  condition  of  women 
was  not  so  much  restrained  as  it  became  in  later  times, 
and  that  monogamy  was  the  ordinary  state.  From  the 
great  extent  of  these  works,  their  various  dates  and 
authorship,  it  is  not  easy  to  deduce  from  them  consistent 
principles,  and  their  parts  being  without  any  connexion, 
complete  copies  are  very  scarce.  They  have  undergone 
mutilation  and  restoration,  so  that  great  discordances 
have  arisen. 

In  the  Institutes  of  Menu,  a  code  of  civil  and  religious 
law,  written  about  the  ninth  century  before  The  institutes 
Christ,  though,  like  the  Vedas,  betraying  a  of  Menu. 
gradual  origin,  the  doctrine  of  the  Divine  unity  becomes 
more  distinctly  mixed  up  with  Pantheistic  ideas.  They 
present  a  description  of  creation,  of  the  nature  of  God,  and 
contain  prescribed  rules  for  the  duty  of  man  in  every 
station  of  life  from  the  moment  of  birth  to  death.  Their 
imperious  regulations  in  all  these  minute  details  are  a 
sufficient  proof  of  the  great  development  and  paramount 
power  to  which  the  priesthood  had  now  attained,  but 
their  morality  is  discreditable.  They  indicate  a  high 
civilization  and  demoralization,  deal  with  crimes  and  a 
policy  such  as  are  incident  to  an  advanced  social  condition. 
Their  arbitrary  and  all-reaching  spirit  reminds  one  of  the 
papal  system ;  their  recommendations  to  sovereigns,  their 
authorization  of  immoralities,  recall  the  state  of  Italian 
society  as  reflected  in  the  works  of  Machiavelli.  They 
hold  learning  in  the  most  signal  esteem,  but  concede  to 
the  prejudices  of  the  illiterate  in  a  worship  of  the  gods 
with  burnt -offerings  of  clarified  butter  and  libations 
of  the  juices  of  plants.  As  respects  the  constitution  of 
man,  they  make  a  distinction  between  the  soul  and  the  vital 
principle,  asserting  that  it  is  the  latter  only  which  expiates 
sin  by  transmigration.  They  divide  society  into  four 
castes — the  priests,  the  military,  the  industrial,  the  servile. 
They  make  a  Brahmin  the  chief  of  all  created  things,  and 
order  that  his  life  shall  be  divided  into  four  parts,  one  to 
be  spent  in  abstinence,  one  in  marriage,  one  as  an  anchorite, 
and  one  in  profound  meditation ;  he  may  then  "  quit  the 


64  OK   HINDU  THEOLOGY  [cH.  HI* 

body  as  a  bird  leaves  the  branch  of  a  tree."  They  vest 
the  government  of  society  in  an  absolute  monarch,  having 
seven  councillors,  who  direct  the  internal  administration 
by  a  chain  of  officials,  the  revenue  being  derived  from  a 
share  of  agricultural  products,  taxes  on  commerce,  imposts 
on  shopkeepers,  and  a  service  of  one  day  in  the  month 
from  labourers. 

In  their  essential  principles  the  Institutes  therefore 
follow  the  Vedas,  though,  as  must  be  the  case  in  every 
system  intended  for  men  in  the  various  stages  of  intel- 
lectual progress  from  the  least  advanced  to  the  highest,  they 
show  a  leaning  toward  popular  delusions.  Both 
vedM  and  are  pantheistic,  for  both  regard  the  universe  as 
institutes  are  the  manifestation  of  the  Creator ;  both  accept 
8tic'  the  doctrine  of  Emanation,  teaching  that  the 
universe  lasts  only  for  a  definite  period  of  time,  and  then, 
the  Divine  energy  being  withdrawn,  absorption  of  every- 
thing, even  of  the  created  gods,  takes  place,  and  thus,  in 
great  cycles  of  prodigious  duration,  many  such  successive 
emanations  and  absorptions  of  universe  occur. 

The  changes  that  have  taken  place  among  the  orthodox 
in  India  since  the  period  of  the  Institutes  are  in  consequence 
Disappear-  °f  the  diminution  or  disappearance  of  the  highly 
anceofthe  philosophical  classes,  and  the  comparative  pre- 

philosophical     j  /.    ,•,  ••  m-i  «.   a    i 

classes,  and      dominance  oi  the  vulgar,     iney  are  stated  by 

consequent  ]y{ r  Elphinstone  as  a  gradual  oblivion  of  mono- 
prominence  of  ,,  .  r,i  i  -P.  ,  .  ,. 
anthropocen-  theism,  the  neglect  ot  the  worship  of  some  gods 
trie  ideas.  an(j  ^e  introduction  of  others,  the  worship  of 
deified  mortals.  The  doctrine  of  human  deification  is 
carried  to  such  an  extent  that  Indra  and  other  mytho- 
logical gods  are  said  to  tremble  lest  they  should  be 
supplanted  by  men.  This  introduction  of  polytheism  and 
use  of  images  has  probably  been  connected  with  the  fact 
that  there  have  been  no  temples  to  the  Invisible  God,  and 
the  uneducated  mind  feels  the  necessity  of  some  recog- 
nizable form.  In  this  manner  the  Trinitarian  conception 
of  Brahma,  Vishnu,  and  Siva,  with  fourteen  other  chief 
gods,  has  been  introduced.  Vishnu  and  Siva  are  never 
mentioned  in  the  Institutes,  but  they  now  engross  the 
public  devotions  ;  besides  these  there  are  angels,  genii, 
penates,  and  lares,  like  the  Roman.  Brahma  has  only  one 


CH.  111.]  AND  EGYPTIAN  CIVILIZATION.  65 

temple  in  all  India,  and  has  never  been  much  worshipped. 
Chrishna  is  the  great  favourite  of  the  women.  The  doctrine 
of  incarnation  has  also  become  prevalent ;  the  incarnations 
of  Vishnu  are  innumerable.  The  opinion  has  also  been 
spread  that  faith  in  a  particular  god  is  better  than  con- 
templation, ceremonial,  or  good  works.  A  new  ritual, 
instead  of  the  Vedas,  has  come  into  use,  these  scriptures 
being  the  eighteen  Puranas,  composed  between  the  eighth 
and  sixteenth  centuries.  They  contain  theogonies,  accounts 
of  the  creation,  philosophical  speculations,  fragmentary 
history,  and  may  be  brought  to  support  any  sectarian 
view,  having  never  been  intended  as  one  general  body, 
but  they  are  received  as  incontrovertible  authority.  In 
former  times  great  efficacy  was  attached  to  sacrifice  and 
religious  austerities,  but  the  objects  once  accomplished  in 
that  way  are  now  compassed  by  mere  faith.  In  the 
Baghavat  Gita,  the  text-book  of  the  modern  school,  the 
sole  essential  for  salvation  is  dependence  on  some  particular 
teacher,  which  makes  up  for  everything  else.  The  efficacy 
which  is  thus  ascribed  to  faith,  and  the  facility  with  which 
sin  may  be  expiated  by  penance,  have  led  to  great  mental 
debility  and  superstition.  Force  has  been  added  to  the 
doctrine  of  a  material  paradise  of  trees,  flowers,  banquets, 
hymns ;  and  to  a  hell,  a  dismal  place  of  flames,  thirst, 
torment,  and  horrid  spectres. 

If  such  has  been  the  gradual  degradation  of  religion, 
through  the  suppression  or  disappearance  of  the  most 
highly  cultivated  minds,  the  tendency  of  philosophy  is  not 
less  strikingly  marked.  It  is  said  that  even  in  Thephiioso- 
ancient  times  not  fewer  than  six  distinct  philo-  Phical  schools. 
sophical  schools  may  be  recognized  :  1,  the  prior  Mimansa ; 
2,  the  later  Mimansa,  or  Vedanta,  founded  by  Vyasa  about 
1400  B.C.  having  a  Vedanta  literature  of  prodigious 
extent ;  3,  the  Logical  school,  bearing  a  close  resemblance 
to  that  of  Aristotle,  even  in  its  details ;  4,  the  Atomic 
school  of  Canade ;  5,  the  Atheistical  school  of  Capila ;  6, 
the  Theistical  school  of  Patanjali. 

This  great  theological  system,  enforced  by  a  tyrannical 
hierarchy,    did  not   maintain   itself  without  a  The  rise  of 
conflict.      Buddhism  arose   as    its    antagonist.  Buddhism. 
By  an  inevitable  necessity,  Vedaism  must  pass  onward 


66  OH  HINDU  THEOLOGY  [CH.  III. 

to  Buddhism.  The  prophetic  foresight  of  the  great  founder 
of  this  system  was  justified  by  its  prodigious,  its  un- 
paralleled and  enduring  success — a  success  that  rested  on 
the  assertion  of  the  dogma  of  the  absolute  equality  of  all 
men,  and  this  in  a  country  that  for  ages  had  been 
oppressed  by  castes.  If  the  "Buddhist  admits  the  existence 
of  God,  it  is  not  as  a  Creator^  for  matter  is  equally 
eternal ;  and  since  it  possesses  a  property  of  inherent 
organization,  even  if  the  universe  should  perish,  this 
quality  would  quickly  restore  it,  and  carry  it  on  to  new 
regenerations  and  new  decays  without  any  external  agency. 
It  also  is  endued  with  intelligence  and  consciousness.  The 
Buddhists  agree  with  the  Brahmins  in  the  doctrine  of 
Quietism,  in  the  care  of  animal  life,  in  transmigration. 
They  deny  the  Vedas  and  Puranas,  have  no  castes,  and, 
agreeably  to  their  cardinal  principle,  draw  their  priests 
from  all  classes  like  the  European  monks.  They  live  in 
monasteries,  dress  in  yellow,  go  barefoot,  their  heads  and 
beards  being  shaved ;  they  have  constant  services  in  their 
chapels,  chanting,  incense,  and  candles  ;  erect  monuments 
and  temples  over  the  relics  of  holy  men.  They  place  an 
especial  merit  in  celibacy ;  renounce  all  the  pleasures  of 
sense  ;  eat  in  one  hall ;  receive  alms.  To  do  these  things 
is  incident  to  a  certain  phase  of  human  progress. 

Buddhism  arose  about  the  tenth  century  before  Christ, 
its  founder  being  Arddha  Chiddi,  a  native  of  Capila,  near 
Nepaul.  Of  his  epoch  there  are,  however,  many  state- 
ments. The  Avars,  Siamese,  and  Cingalese  fix  it  B.C.  000 ; 
i.ifeofArd-  t^e  Cashmerians,  B.C.  1332:  the  Chinese,  Mon- 
dtu  Chiddi.  gols,  and  Japanese,  B.C.  1000.  The  Sanscrit 
words  occurring  in  Buddhism  attest  its  Hindu  origin, 
Buddha  itself  being  the  Sanscrit  for  intelligence.  After 
the  system  had  spread  widely  in  India,  it  was  carried  by 
missionaries  into  Ceylon,  Tartary,  Thibet,  China,  Japan, 
Burmah,  and  is  now  professed  by  a  greater  portion  of  the 
human  race  than  any  other  religion.  Until  quite  recently, 
the  history  of  Arddha  Chiddi  and  the  system  he  taught 
have,  notwithstanding  their  singular  interest,  been  very 
imperfectly  known  in  Europe.  He  was  born  in  affluence 
and  of  a  royal  family.  In  his  twenty-ninth  year  ho  re- 
tired from  the  worM,  the  pleasures  of  which  he  had  tasted, 


CH.  HI.]  AND  EGYPTIAN  CIVILIZATION.  67 

and  of  which  he  had  become  weary.  The  spectacle  of  a 
gangrened  corpse  first  arrested  his  thoughts.  Leaving 
his  numerous  wives,  he  became  a  religious  mendicant.  It 
is  said  that  he  walked  about  in  a  shroud,  taken  from  the 
body  of  a  female  slave.  Profoundly  impressed  with  the 
vanity  of  all  human  affairs,  he  devoted  himself  to  philo- 
sophical meditation,  by  severe  self-denial  emancipating 
himself  from  all  wordly  hopes  and  cares.  When  a  man 
has  brought  himself  to  this  pass  he  is  able  to  accomplish 
great  things.  For  the  name  by  which  his  parents  had 
called  him  he  substituted  that  of  Gotama,  or  "  he  who  kills 
the  senses,"  and  subsequently  Chakia  Mouni,  or  the  Peni- 
tent of  Chakia.  Under  the  shade  of  a  tree  Gotama  was 
born ;  under  the  shade  of  a  tree  he  overcame  the  love  of 
the  world  and  the  fear  of  death ;  under  the  shade  of  a  tree 
he  preached  his  first  sermon  in  the  shroud ;  under  the 
shade  of  a  tree  he  died.  In  four  months  after  he  com- 
menced his  ministry  he  had  five  disciples  ;  at  the  close  of 
the  year  they  had  increased  to  twelve  hundred.  In  the 
twenty-nine  centuries  that  have  passed  since  that  time, 
they  have  given  rise  to  sects  counting  millions  of  souls, 
outnumbering  the  followers  of  all  other  religious  teachers. 
The  system  still  seems  to  retain  much  of  its  pristine  vigour ; 
yet  religions  are  perishable.  There  is  no  country,  except 
India,  which  has  the  same  religion  now  that  it  had  at  tho 
birth  of  Christ. 

Gotama  died  at  tho  advanced  age  of  eighty  years ;  his 
corpse  was  burnt  eight  days  subsequently.  But  several 
years  before  this  event  his  system  must  be  considered  as 
thoroughly  established.  It  shows  how  little  depends  upon 
the  nature  of  a  doctrine,  and  how  much  upon  effective 
organization,  that  Buddhism,  the  principles  of  rrbe  Orgai)i2a 
which  are  far  above  the  reach  of  popular  thought,  tion  of  Bud- 
should  have  been  propagated  with  so  much  ra-  d 
pidity,  for  it  made  its  converts  by  preaching,  and  not,  like 
Mohammedanism,  by  the  sword.  Shortly  after  Gotama's 
death,  a  council  of  five  hundred  ecclesiastics  assembled  for 
the  purpose  of  settling  the  religion.  A  century  later  a 
second  council  met  to  regulate  the  monastic  institution ; 
and  in  B.C.  241,  a  third  council,  for  the  expulsion  of  fire- 
worshippers.  Under  the  auspices  of  King  Asoka,  whose 


68  OX   HINDU  THEOLOGY  [CH.  III. 

character  presents  singular  points  of  resemblance  to  that 
of  the  Roman  emperor  who  summoned  the  Council  of 
Nicea,  for  he,  too,  was  the  murderer  of  his  own  family, 
and  has  been  handed  down  to  posterity,  because  of  the 
success  of  the  policy  of  his  party,  as  a  great,  a  virtuous, 
and  a  pious  sovereign — under  his  auspices  missionaries 
were  sent  out  in  all  directions,  and  monasteries  richly 
endowed  were  everywhere  established.  The  singular  effi- 
cacy of  monastic  institutions  was  rediscovered  in  Europe 
many  centuries  subsequently. 

In  proclaiming  the  equality  of  all  men  in  this  life,  the 
Buddhists,  as  we  have  seen,  came  into  direct  collision  with 
the  orthodox  creed  of  India,  long  carried  out  into  practice 
in  the  institution  of  castes — a  collision  that  was  embittered 
by  the  abhorrence  the  Buddhists  displayed  for  any  dis- 
tinction between  the  clergy  and  laity.  To  be  a  Brahmin 
a  man  must  be  born  one,  but  a  Buddhist  priest  might 
voluntarily  come  from  any  rank— from  the  very  dregs  of 
society.  In  the  former  system  marriage  was  absolutely 
essential  to  the  ecclesiastical  caste  ;  in  the  latter  it  was 
not,  for  the  priestly  ranks  could  be  recruited  without  it. 
And  hence  there  followed  a  most  important  advantage, 
that  celibacy  and  chastity  might  be  extolled  as  the 
greatest  of  all  the  virtues.  The  experience  of 
tweenSthe^  Europe,  as  well  as  of  Asia,  has  shown  how 
Hrahmansand  powerful  is  the  control  obtained  by  the  hier- 
archy in  that  way.  In  India  there  was,  there- 
fore, no  other  course  for  the  orthodox  than  to  meet  the 
danger  with  bloody  persecutions,  and  in  the  end,  the 
Buddhists,  expelled  from  their  native  seats,  were  scattered 
throughout  Eastern  Asia.  Persecution  is  the  mother  of 
proselytes. 

The  fundamental  principle  of  Buddhism  is  that  there  is 
Ruddhism  is  a  supreme  power,  but  no  Supreme  Being.  From 
founded  on  the  this  it  might  be  inferred  that  they  who  adopt 
"rower  or"  °  such  a  creed  cannot  be  pantheists,  but  must  be 
Force.  atheists.  It  is  a  rejection  of  the  idea  of  Being, 

an  acknowledgment  of  that  of  Force.  If  it  admits  the 
existence  of  God,  it  declines  him  as  a  Creator.  It  asserts 
an  impelling  power  in  the  universe,  a  self-existent  and 
plastic  principle,  but  not  a  self-existent,  an  eternal  a 


CH.  HI.]  AND  EGYPTIAN  CIVILIZATION.  69 

personal  God.  It  rejects  inquiry  into  first  causes  as  being 
unphilosophical,  and  considers  that  phenomena  lt  doeg  not 
alone  can  be  dealt  with  by  our  finite  minds,  recognize  a 
Not  without  an  air  of  intellectual  majesty,  it  P0"50""1  Uod- 
tolerates  the  Asiatic  time -consecrated  idea  of  a  trinity, 
pointing  out  one  not  of  a  corporeal,  but  of  an  impersonal 
kind.  Its  trinity  is  the  Past,  the  Present,  the  Future. 
For  the  sake  of  aiding  our  thoughts,  it  images  the  Past 
with  his  hands  folded,  since  he  has  attained  to  rest,  but 
the  others  with  their  right  hands  extended  in  token  of 
activity.  Since  he  has  no  God,  the  Buddhist  cannot 
expect  absorption  ;  the  pantheistic  Brahmin  looks  forward 
to  the  return  of  his  soul  to  the  Supreme  Being  as  a  drop 
of  rain  returns  to  the  sea.  The  Buddhist  has  no  religion, 
but  only  a  ceremonial.  How  can  there  be  a  religion  where 
there  is  no  God  ? 

In   all   this   it   is  plain  that  the  impersonal  and  im- 
material predominates,  and  that  Gotama  is  con- 
templating the  existence  of  pure  Force  without  d?ntiai  go- 
any  association  of  Substance.     He  necessarily  vernmeilt' 
denies  the  immediate  interposition  of  any  such  agency  as 
Providence,    maintaining    that    the    system    of    nature, 
once  arising,  must  proceed  irresistibly  according  to  the 
laws  which  brought   it  into  being,  and   that  from  this 
point  of  view  the  universe  is  merely  a  gigantic  engine. 
To  the  Brahman  priesthood  such  ideas  were  particularly 
obnoxious  ;  they  were  hostile  to  any  philosophical  system 
founded    on    the   principle   that   the   world    is  but  refcrg  all 
governed  by  law,  for  they  suspected   that   its  events  to  re- 
tendency  would  be  to  leave  them  without  any  sistless  law' 
mediatory  functions,  and  therefore  without  any  claims  on 
the  faithful.     Equally  does  Gotama  deny  the  existence  of 
chance,  saying  that  that  which  we  call  chance  is  nothing 
but  the  effect  of  an  unknown,  unavoidable  cause.     As  to 
the  external  world,  we  cannot  tell  how  far  it  is  a  phan- 
tasm, how  far  a  reality,  for  our  senses  possess  no 

,1  • ,  *  ,        .1         mi          A  Doubts  the 

trustworthy  criterion  01  truth.     1  bey  convey  to  actual  txist- 
the  mind  representations  of  what  we  consider  to  e?<*"f  the, . 

,  i     .-L  •  -i  i  •   T.     •-     •       r         -11    visible  world. 

be   external   things,  by  which   it  is  furnished 

with  materials  for  its  various  operations ;  but,  unless  it 

acts  in  conjunction  with  the  senses,  the  operation  is  lost, 


70  OX   HINDU  THEOLOGY  [CII.  III. 

as  in  that  absence  which  takes  place  in  deep  contempla- 
tion. It  is  owing  to  our  inability  to  determine  what 
share  these  internal  and  external  conditions  take  in  pro- 
ducing a  result  that  the  absolute  or  actual  state  of  nature 
is  incomprehensible  by  us.  Nevertheless,  conceding  to 
our  mental  infirmity  the  idea  of  a  real  existence  of  visible 
nature,  we  may  consider  it  as  offering  a  succession  of 
impermanent  forms,  and  as  exhibiting  an  orderly  series 
of  transmutations,  innumerable  universes  in  periods  of 
inconceivable  time  emerging  one  after  another,  and  crea- 
tions and  extinctions  of  systems  of  worlds  taking  place 
according  to  a  primordial  law. 

Such  are  his  doctrines  of  a  Supreme  Force,  and  of  the 
origin  and  progress  of  the  visible  world.  With  like 
or  the  nature  ability  Gotama  deals  with  his  inqtiiry  into  the 
of  man.  nature  of  man.  With  Oriental  imagery  he  bids 
us  consider  what  becomes  of  a  grain  of  salt  thrown  into 
the  sea ;  but,  lest  we  should  be  deceived  herein,  he 
tells  us  that  there  is  no  such  thing  as  individuality  or 
personality — that  the  Ego  is  altogether  a  nonentity.  In 
these  profound  considerations  he  brings  to  bear  his  con- 
ception of  force,  in  the  light  thereof  asserting  that  all 
sentient  beings  are  homogeneous.  If  we  fail  to  follow  him 
in  these  exalted  thoughts,  bound  down  to  material  ideas 
by  the  infirmities  of  the  human  constitution,  and  inquire 
of  him  how  the  spirit  of  man,  which  obviously  displays  so 
much  energy,  can  be  conceived  of  as  being  without  form, 
without  a  past,  without  a  future,  he  demands  of  us  what 
has  become  of  the  flame  of  a  lamp  when  it  is  blown  out,  or 
to  tell  him  in  what  obscure  condition  it  lay  before  it  was 
kindled.  Was  it  a  nonentity  ?  Has  it  been  annihilated  ? 
By  the  aid  of  such  imagery  he  tries  to  depict  the  nature  of 
existence,  and  to  convey  a  vivid  idea  of  the  metamorphoses 
it  undergoes.  Outward  things  are  to  him  phantasms ;  the 
impressions  they  make  on  the  mind  are  phantasms  too. 
In  this  sense  ho  receives  the  doctrine  of  transmigration, 
conceiving  of  it  very  much  as  we  conceive  of  the  accumula- 
tion of  heat  successively  in  different  things.  In  one  sense 
it  may  be  the  same  heat  which  occupies  such  objects  one 
after  another,  but  in  another,  since  heat  is  force  and 
not  matter,  there  can  be  no  such  individuality.  Viewed, 


CH.  III.]  AND  EGYPTIAN  CIVILIZATION.  71 

however,  in  the  less  profound  way,  he  is  not  unwilling  to 
adopt  the  doctrine  of  the  transmigration  of  the  Of  trana. 
soul  through  various  forms,  admitting  that  there  migration  and 
may  accumulate  upon  it  the  effect  of  all  those  petli  nce> 
influences,  whether  of  merit  or  demerit,  of  good  or  of  evil, 
to  which  it  has  been  exposed.  The  vital  flame  is  handed 
down  from  one  generation  to  another,  it  is  communicated 
from  one  animated  form  to  another  He  thinks  it  may 
carry  with  it  in  these  movements  the  modifications  which 
may  have  been  impressed  on  it,  and  require  opportunity 
for  shaking  them  off  and  regaining  its  original  state.  At 
this  point  the  doctrine  of  Gotama  is  assuming  the  aspect 
of  a  moral  system,  and  is  beginning  to  suggest  means  of 
deliverance  from  the  accumulated  evil  and  consequent 
demerit  to  which  the  spirit  has  been  exposed.  He  will 
not,  however,  recognize  any  vicarious  action.  Each  one 
must  work  out  for  himself  his  own  salvation,  remembering 
that  death  is  not  necessarily  a  deliverance  from  worldly 
ills,  it  may  be  only  a  passage  to  new  miseries.  But  yet, 
as  the  light  of  the  taper  must  come  at  last  to  an  end,  so 
there  is  at  length,  though  it  may  be  after  many  trans- 
migrations, an  end  of  life.  That  end  he  calls  Nirwana,  a 
word  that  has  been  for  nearly  three  thousand  years  of 
solemn  import  to  countless  millions  of  men ; — Nirwana, 
the  end  of  successive  existences,  that  state  which  has  no 
relation  to  matter,  or  space,  or  time,  to  which  and  the 
the  departing  flame  of  the  extinguished  taper  'passage  to 
has  gone.  It  is  the  supreme  end,  Nonentity.  nonentlty 
The  attaining  of  this  is  the  object  to  which  we  ought  to 
aspire,  and  for  that  purpose  we  should  seek  to  destroy 
within  ourselves  all  cleaving  to  existence,  weaning  our- 
selves from  every  earthly  object,  from  every  earthly 
pursuit.  We  should  resort  to  monastic  life,  to  penance,  to 
self-denial,  self-mortification,  and  so  gradually  learn  to 
sink  into  perfect  quietude  or  apathy,  in  imitation  of  that 
state  to  which  we  must  come  at  last,  and  to  which,  by 
such  preparation,  we  may  all  the  more  rapidly  approach. 
The  pantheistic  Brahman  expects  absorption  in  God ;  the 
Buddhist,  having  no  God,  expects  extinction. 

India  has  thus  given  to  the  world  two  distinct  philo- 
sophical systems :    Vedaism,  which  takes  as  its  resting- 


72  OX  HINDU  THEOLOGY  [CH.  III. 

point  the  existence  of  matter,  and  Buddhism,  of  which 
rhiioso  Lie*!  t^ie  resting-point  is  force.  The  philosophical 
estimate  of  ability  displayed  in  the  latter  is  very  great ; 
Buddhism.  in(jced  it  may  be  doubted  whether  Europe  has 
produced  its  metaphysical  equivalent.  And  yet,  if  I  have 
correctly  presented  its  principles,  it  will  probably  appear 
that  its  primary  conception  is  not  altogether  consistently 
carried  out  in  the  development  of  the  details.  Great  as 
was  the  intellectual  ability  of  its  author — so  great  as  to 
extort  our  profoundest,  though  it  may  be  reluctant  admira- 
tion— there  are  nevertheless  moments  in  which  it  appears 
that  his  movement  is  becoming  wavering  and  unsteady — 
that  he  is  failing  to  handle  his  ponderous  weapon  with 
self-balanced  power.  This  is  particularly  the  case  in  that 
point  at  which  he  is  passing  from  the  consideration  of 
pure  force  to  the  unavoidable  consideration  of  visible 
nature,  the  actual  existence  of  which  he  seems  to  be 
obliged  to  deny.  But  then  I  am  not  sure  that  I  have 
caught  with  precision  his  exact  train  of  thought,  or  have 
represented  his  intention  with  critical  correctness.  Con- 
sidering the  extraordinary  power  he  elsewhere  displays, 
it  is  more  probable  that  I  have  failed  to  follow  his 
meaning,  than  that  he  has  been,  on  the  points  in  question, 
incompetent  to  deal  with  his  task. 

The  works  of  Gotama,  under  the  title  of  "  Verbal 
Instructions,"  are  published  by  the  Chinese  government 
in  four  languages — Thibetan,  Mongol,  Mantchou,  Chinese 
— from  the  imperial  press  at  Pekin,  in  eight  hundred  largo 
volumes.  They  are  presented  to  the  Lama  monasteries — 
a  magnificent  gift. 

In  speaking  of  Vedaism,  I  have  mentioned  the  manner 
in  which  its  more  elevated  conceptions  were 
'  gradually  displaced  by  those  of  a  base  grade 
ideas  by  base  coming  into  prominence :  and  here  it  may  be 

ones.  .£•    -i     •        TI  i          f    ii 

usetul  in  like  manner  to  speak  of  the  corre- 
sponding debasement  of  Buddhism.  Its  practical  working 
was  the  introduction  of  an  immense  monastic  system, 
offering  many  points  of  resemblance  to  the  subsequent  one 
of  Europe.  Since  its  object  was  altogether  of  a  personal 
kind,  the  attainment  of  individual  happiness,  it  was  not 
possible  that  it  should  do  otherwise  than  engender 


CH.  III.]  AND  EGYPTIAN   CIVILIZATION*.  73 

extreme  selfishness.  It  impressed  on  each  man  to  secure 
his  own  salvation,  no  matter  what  became  of  all  lts  anthropo- 
others.  Of  what  concern  to  him  were  parents,  centric  phase 

.„,.,,  r  •       j  i  r.       remains,  its 

wife,  children,  Inends,  country,  so  long  as  he  philosophical 
attained  Nirwana!  declining. 

Long  before  Buddhism  had  been  expelled  from  India 
by  the  victorious  Brahmins,  it  had  been  overlaid  with 
popular  ornaments.  It  had  its  fables,  legends,  its  legends 
miracles.  Its  humble  devotees  implicitly  be-  and  miracles. 
lieved  that  Mahamia,  the  mother  of  Gotama,  an  immaculate 
virgin,  conceived  him  through  a  divine  influence,  and 
that  thus  he  was  of  the  nature  of  God  and  man  conjoined  ; 
that  he  stood  upon  his  feet  and  spoke  at  the  moment  of 
his  birth ;  that  at  five  months  of  age  he  sat  unsupported 
in  the  air ;  that  at  the  moment  of  his  conversion  he  was 
attacked  by  a  legion  of  demons,  and  that  in  his  penance- 
fasting  he  reduced  himself  to  the  allowance  of  one  pepper- 
pod  a  day ;  that  he  had  been  incarnate  many  times  before, 
and  that  on  his  ascension  through  the  air  to  heaven  he 
left  his  footprint  on  a  mountain  in  Ceylon  ;  that  there  is  a 
paradise  of  gems,  and  flowers,  and  feasts,  and  music  for 
the  good,  and  a  hell  of  sulphur,  and  flames,  and  torment 
for  the  wicked  ;  that  it  is  lawful  to  resort  to  the  worship 
of  images,  but  that  those  are  in  error  who  deify  men,  or 
pay  respect  to  relics ;  that  there  are  spirits,  and  goblins, 
and  other  superhuman  forms ;  that  there  is  a  queen  of 
heaven  ;  that  the  reading  of  the  Scriptures  is  in  itself  an 
actual  merit,  whether  its  precepts  are  followed  or  not ; 
that  prayer  may  be  offered  by  saying  a  formula  by  rote, 
or  even  by  turning  the  handle  of  a  mill  from  which 
invocations  written  on  paper  issue  forth ;  that  the  revealer 
of  Buddhism  is  to  be  regarded  as  the  religious  head  of  the 
world. 

The  reader  cannot  fail  to  remark  the  resemblance  of 
these  ideas  to  some  oi  those  of  the  Eoman  Church.  When 
a  knowledge  of  the  Oriental  forms  of  religion  was  first 
brought  into  Europe,  and  their  real  origin  was  not  under- 
stood, it  was  supposed  that  this  coincidence  had  arisen 
through  the  labours  of  Xestorian,  or  other  ancient  mission- 
aries from  the  West,  and  hopes  were  entertained  that  the 
conversion  of  Eastern  Asia  would  be  promoted  thereby.  But 

VOL.  I.-5 


74  ON  HINDU  THEOLOGY  [CH.  HI. 

this  expectation  was  disappointed,  and  that  which  many 
good  men  regarded  as  a  preparation  for  Christianity- 
proved  to  be  a  stumbling-block  in  its  way.  It  is  not 
improbable  that  the  pseudo-Christianity  of  the  Chinese 
revolters,  of  which  so  much  has  recently  been  said,  is  of 
the  same  nature,  and  will  end  with  the  same  result. 

Decorated  with  these  extraneoiis  but  popular  recommen- 
dations, Buddhism  has  been  embraced  by  two-fifths  of 
the  human  race.  It  has  a  prodigious  literature,  great 
The  great  temples,  many  monuments.  Its  monasteries  are 
diffusion  of  scattered  from  the  north  of  Tartary  almost  to 
Buddhism.  ^Q  equinoctial  line.  In  these  an  education  is 
imparted  not  unlike  that  of  the  European  monasteries 
of  the  Middle  Ages.  It  has  been  estimated  that  in 
Tartary  one-third  of  the  population  are  Lamas.  There 
are  single  convents  containing  more  than  two  thousand 
individuals ;  the  wealth  of  the  country  voluntarily  pours 
into  them.  Elementary  education  is  more  widely  diffused 
than  in  Europe ;  it  is  rare  to  meet  with  a  person  who 
cannot  read.  Among  the  priests  there  are  many  who  are 
devout,  and,  as  might  be  expected,  many  who  are  im- 
postors. It  is  a  melancholy  fact  that,  in  China,  Buddhism 
it«  practical  has  led  the  entire  population  not  only  into 
godiessness.  indifferentism,  but  into  absolute  godlessness. 
They  have  come  to  regard  religion  as  merely  a  fashion,  to 
be  followed  according  to  one's  own  taste ;  that  as  professed 
by  the  state  it  is  a  civil  institution  necessary  for  the 
holding  of  office,  and  demanded  by  society,  but  not  to  be 
regarded  as  of  the  smallest  philosophical  importance ;  that 
a  man  is  entitled  to  indulge  his  views  on  these  matters 
just  as  he  is  entitled  to  indulge  his  taste  in  the  colour  and 
fashion  of  his  garments ;  that  he  has  no  more  right,  how- 
ever, to  live  without  some  religious  profession  than  he  has 
a  right  to  go  naked.  The  Chinese  cannot  comprehend 
how  there  should  be  animosities  arising  on  matters  of 
such  doubtful  nature  and  trivial  concern.  The  formula 
under  which  they  live  is :  "  Religions  are  many ;  reason  is 
one ;  we  are  brothers."  They  smile  at  the  credulity  of 
the  good-natured  Tartars,  who  believe  in  the  wonders  of 
miracle-workers,  for  they  have  miracle-workers  who  can 
perform  the  most  supernatural  cures,  who  can  lick  rod-hot 


CH.  III.]  AND  EGYPTIAN  CIVILIZATION*.  75 

iron,  who  can  cut  open  their  bowels,  and,  by  passing  their 
hand  over  the  wound,  make  themselves  whole  again — who 
can  raise  the  dead.  In  China,  these  miracles,  with  all 
their  authentications,  have  descended  to  the  conjurer,  and 
are  performed  for  the  amusement  of  children.  The 
common  expressions  of  that  country  betray  the  materialism 
and  indiflerentism  of  the  people,  and  their  consequent  im- 
morality. "  The  prisons,"  they  say,  "  are  locked  night  and 
day,  but  they  are  always  full ;  the  temples  are  always 
open,  and  jet  there  is  nobody  in  them."  Of  the  dead  they 
say,  with  an  exquisite  refinement  of  euphemism,  "  He  has 
saluted  the  world."  The  Lazarist  Hue,  on  whose  authority 
many  of  these  statements  are  made,  testifies  that  they  die, 
indeed,  with  incomparable  tranquillity,  just  as  animals 
die ;  and  adds,  with  a  bitter,  and  yet  profoundly  true 
sarcasm,  they  are  what  many  in  Europe  are  wanting  to  be. 

From  the  theology  of  India  I  turn,  in  the  next  place,  to 
the  civilization  of  Egypt. 

The  ancient  system  of  isolation  which  for  many  thou- 
sand years  had  been  the  policy  of,  Egypt  was  overthrown 
by  Psammetichus  about  B.C.  670.      Up  to  that  time  the 
inhabitants  of  that  country  had  been  shut  out  from  all 
Mediterranean  or  European  contact  by  a  rigorous  exclusion 
exceeding   that   until   recently   practised   in   China   and 
Japan.     As   from  the  inmates  of  the  happy  valley,  in 
Rasselas,  no  tidings  escaped  to  the  outer  world,  so,  to  the 
European,  the  valley  of  the  Nile  was  a  region 
of  mysteries  and  marvels.     At  intervals  of  cen-  ^j^,sa  m 
turies,  individuals,  like   Cecrops  and   Danaus,  ™umryto 
had  fled  to  other  countries,  and  had  attached  the 
gratitude  of  posterity  to  their  memories  for  the  religion, 
laws,  or  other  institutions  of  civilization  they  had  con- 
ferred.    The  traditions  connected  with  them  served  only 
to  magnify  those  uncertain   legends  met  with   all  over 
Asia   Minor,  Greece,  Italy,  Sicily,  of  the  prodigies  and 
miracles  that  adventurous  pirates  reported  they  its  reported 
had  actually  seen   in   their  stealthy  visits  to  wonders, 
the  enchanted  valley — great  pyramids  covering  acres  of 
land,  their  tops  rising  to  the  heavens,  yet  each  pyramid 
nothing  more   than  the   tombstone  of  a   king ;    colossi 


76  0^   HINDU  THEOLOGY  [CH.  III. 

sitting  on  granite  thrones,  the  images  of  Pharaohs  who 
lived  in  the  morning  of  the  world,  still  silently  looking 
upon  the  land  which  thousands  of  years  before  they  had 
ruled ;  of  these,  some  obedient  to  the  sun,  saluted  his 
approach  when  touched  by  his  morning  rays ;  obelisks 
of  prodigious  height,  carved  by  superhuman  skill  from  a 
single  block  of  stone,  and  raised  by  superhuman  power 
erect  on  their  everlasting  pedestals,  their  faces  covered 
with  mysterious  hieroglyphs,  a  language  unknown  to  the 
vulgar,  telling  by  whom  and  for  what  they  had  been  con- 
structed ;  temples,  the  massive  leaning  and  lowering  walls 
of  which  were  supported  by  countless  ranges  of  statues ; 
avenues  of  sphinxes,  through  the  shadows  of  which,  grim 
and  silent,  the  portals  of  fanes  might  be  approached ; 
catacombs  containing  the  mortal  remains  of  countless 
generations,  each  corpse  awaiting,  in  mysterious  em- 
balmment, a  future  life ;  labyrinths  of  many  hundred 
chambers  and  vaults,  into  which  whoso  entei'ed  without 
a  clue  never  again  escaped,  but  in  the  sameness  and 
solitude  of  those  endless  windings  found  his  sepulchre. 
It  is  impossible  for  us  to  appreciate  the  sentiment  of 
religious  awe  with  which  the  Mediterranean  people  looked 
upon  the  enchanted,  the  hoary,  the  civilized  monarchy 
on  the  banks  of  the  Nile.  As  Bunsen  says,  "  Egypt 
was  to  the  Greeks  a  sphinx  with  an  intellectual  human 
countenance." 

Her  solitude,  however,  had  not  been  altogether  un- 
its history:  broken.  After  a  duration  of  1076  years,  and 
the  ow  em-  the  reign  of  thirty-eight  kings,  illustrated  by 

Sire;  the  &,         .  J ,,   &  ,J 

yctsos;  the  the  production  of  the  most  stupendous  works 

new  empire.  ever  accomplished  by  the  hand  of  man,  some  of 
which,  as  the  Pyramids,  remain  to  our  times,  the  old 
empire,  which  had  arisen  from  the  union  of  the  upper 
and  lower  countries,  had  been  overthrown  by  the  Hycksos, 
or  shepherd  kings,  a  race  of  Asiatic  invaders.  These, 
in  their  turn,  had  held  dominion  for  more  than  five 
centuries,  when  an  insurrection  put  an  end  to  their 
power,  and  gave  birth  to  the  new  empire,  some  of  the 
monarchs  of  which,  for  their  great  achievements,  are  still 
remembered.  In  the  middle  period  of  this  new  empire 
those  events  in  early  Hebrew  history  took  place— the  visit 


CH.  III.]  AND  EGYPTIAN   CIVILIZATION.  77 

of  Abram  and  the  elevation  of  Joseph — which  are  related 
with  such  simplicity  in  the  Holy  Scriptures.     With  varied 
prosperity,   the  new  empire  continued  until  the  time  of 
Psammetichus,   who,    in    a    civil    war,   having    attained 
supreme  power  by  the  aid  of  Greek  mercenaries,  overthrew 
the   time-honoured  policy  of  all  the   old   dynasties,  and 
occasioned  the  first  grand  impulse  in  the  intel-  0p€ninKOf 
lectual  life  of  Europe  by  opening  the  ports  of  the  Egyptian 
Egypt,  and  making  that  country  accessible  to  ports' 
the  blue-eyed  and  red-haired  barbarians  of  the  North. 

It  is  scarcely  possible  to  exaggerate  the  influence  of  this 
event  upon  the  progress  of  Europe.  An  immense  extension 
of  Greek  commerce  by  the  demand  for  the  products  of  the 
Enxine  as  well  as  of  the  Mediterranean  was  the  smallest  part 
of  the  advantage.  As  to  Egypt  herself,  it  entailed  a  com- 
plete change  in  her  policy,  domestic  and  foreign. 
In  the  former  respect,  the  employment  of  the  Egypt"™1*18 
mercenaries  was  the  cause  of  the  entire  emigra-  becom-ama- 
tion  of  the  warrior  caste,  and  in  the  latter 
it  brought  things  to  such  a  condition,  that,  if  Egypt 
would  continue  to  exist,  she  must  become  a  maritime 
state.  Her  geographical  position  for  the  purposes  of 
commerce  was  excellent ;  with  the  Red  Sea  on  the  east 
and  the  Mediterranean  on  the  north,  she  was  the  natural 
entrepot  between  Asia  and  Europe,  as  was  shown  by  the 
prosperity  of  Alexandria  in  later  ages.  But  there  was  a 
serious  difficulty  in  the  way  of  her  becoming  a  naval 
power ;  no  timber  suitable  for  ship-building  grew  in  the 
country — indeed,  scarcely  enough  was  to  be  found  to 
satisfy  the  demands  for  the  construction  of  houses  and 
coffins  for  the  dead.  The  early  Egyptians,  like  the 
Hindus,  had  a  religious  dread  of  the  sea,  but  their 
exclusiveness  was,  perhaps,  not  a  little  dependent  on 
their  want  of  material  for  ship-building.  Egypt  was 
therefore  compelled  to  enter  on  a  career  of  foreign  conquest, 
and  at  all  hazards  possess  herself  of  the  timber-growing 
districts  of  Syria.  It  was  this  urgent  necessity 

i'i      i     i     j        i  IT    •  -ii      J.T        TIT  and  brings  on 

which  led  to   her  collisions  with  the  Mesopo-  collisions  with 
tamian  kings,  and  drew  in  its  train  of  conse-  jhe.liaby 
qtience  the  sieges,  sacks,  and  captivities  of  Jeru- 
salem, the  metropolis  of  a  little  state  lying  directly  between 


78  ON   HINDU   THEOLOGY  fCH.  III. 

the  contending  powers,  and  alternately  disturbed  by  each. 
Of  the  necessity  of  this  course  of  policy  in  the  opinion  of 
the  Egyptian  kings,  we  can  have  no  better  proof  than  the 
fact  that  Psammetichus  himself  continued  the  siege  of 
Azotus  for  twenty-nine  years  ;  that  his  son  Necho  re- 
OpeninKofthe  opened  the  canal  between  the  Kilo  at  Bubastes 
Suez  Cunai.  au(j  ^he  lied  Sea  at  Suez— it  was  wide  enough  for 
two  ships  to  pass — and  on  being  resisted  therein  by  the 
priests,  who  feared  that  it  might  weaken  the  country 
strategically,  attempted  the  circumnavigation  of  Africa, 
and  actually  accomplished  it.  In  those  times  such  expe- 
ditions were  not  undertaken  as  mere  matters  of  curiosity. 
Though  this  monarch  also  despatched  investigators  to 
ascertain  the  sources  of  the  Nile,  and  determine  the  causes 
of  its  rise,  it  was  doubtless  in  the  hope  of  making  such 
knowledge  of  use  in  a  material  or  economical  point  of 
view,  and  therefore  it  may  be  supposed  that  the  circum- 
circumnaviKa-  navigation  of  Africa  was  undertaken  upon  the 
tion  of  Africa,  anticipated  or  experienced  failure  of  the  advan- 
tages expected  to  arise  from  the  reopening  of  the  canal ; 
for  the  great  fleets  which  Necho  and  his  father  had  built 
could  not  be  advantageously  handled  unless  they  could  be 
transferred  as  circumstances  required,  either  by  the  cir- 
cumnavigation or  by  the  canal,  from  one  sea  to  the  other. 
The  time  occupied  in  passing  round  the  continent,  which 
appears  to  have  been  three  years,  rendered  the  former 
method  of  little  practical  use.  But  the  failure  ex- 
perienced, so  far  from  detracting  from  the  estimation 
in  which  wo  must  hold  those  kings  who  could  thus 
display  such  a  breadth  of  conception  and  vigour  of 
execution,  must  even  enhance  it.  They  resumed  the 
policy  of  the  conqueror  Rameses  II.,  who  had  many 
centuries  before  possessed  the  timber-growing  countries, 
and  whoso  engineers  originally  cut  the  canal  from  the 
History  <,f  the  Nile  to  the  Red  Sea,  though  the  work  cost  120,000 
Great  Canal,  lives  and  countless  treasuries  of  money.  The 
canal  of  Rameses,  which,  in  the  course  of  so  many  centu- 
ries, has  become  filled  up  with  sand,  was  thus  cleaned 
out,  as  it  was  again  in  the  reign  of  the  Ptolemies,  and 
again  under  the  khalifs,  and  galleys  passed  from  sea  to  sea. 
The  Persians,  under  Darius  Hystaspes,  also  either  repaired 


CH.  HI.]  •    AND  EGYPTIAN   CIVILIZATION.  79 

it,  or,  as  some  say,  attempted  a  new  work  of  the  kind; 
but  their  engineering  must  have  been  very  defective,  for 
they  were  obliged  to  abandon  their  enterprise  after 
carrying  it  as  far  as  the  bitter  lakes,  finding  that  salt  water 
would  be  introduced  into  the  Delta.  The  Suez  mouth  of 
the  canal  of  Rameses  was  protected  by  a  system  of  hydraulic 
works,  to  meet  difficulties  arising  from  the  variable  levels 
of  the  water.  It  was  reserved  for  the  French  engineer 
Lesseps  in  the  nineteenth  century  to  cut  the  direct  canal 
from  the  Mediterranean  to  the  Ked  Sea,  an  exploit 
which  the  Pharaohs  and  Ptolemies  had  considered  to  be 
impossible. 

The  Egyptian  policy  continued  by  Pharaoh  Hophra,  who 
succeeded  in  the  capture  of  Sidon,  brought  on  hostilities 
with  the  Babylonian  kings,  who  were   now  thoroughly 
awakened  to  what  was  going  on  in  Egypt — a  collision 
which  occasioned  the  expulsion  of  the  Egyptians  from 
Syria,  and  the  seizure  of  the  lower  country  by  Nebuchad- 
nezzar, who  also  took  vengeance  on  King  Zedekiah  for  the 
assistance  Jerusalem  had  rendered  to  the  Africans  in  their 
projects  :  that  city  was  razed   to   the   ground,  Attempts  of 
the  eyes  of  the  king  put  out,  and  the  people  tue  Asiatics 
carried  captive  to  Babylon,  B.C.  508.      It   is  a  Mediterranean 
striking  exemplification  of  the  manner  in  which  shore- 
national  policy  will  endure  through  changes  of  dynasties, 
that  after  the  overthrow  of  Babylon  by  the  Medes,  and 
the  transference  of  power  to  the  Persians,  the  policy  of 
controlling  the  Mediterranean  was  never  for  an   instant 
lost  sight  of.     Attempts  were  continually  made,  by  opera- 
ting alternately  on  the  southern  and  northern  shores,  to 
push  westward.     The  subsequent  history  of  Home  shows 
what  would  have  been  the  consequences  of  an  uncontrolled 
possession   of    the   Mediterranean   by   a   great  E~.ptov(?r_ 
maritime  power.     On  the  occasion  of  a  revolt  of  thrown  by 
Egypt,  the  Persian  King  Cambyses  so  utterly  °™1****- 
crushed  and  desolated  it,  that  from  that  day  to  this,  though 
twenty-four  centuries  have  intervened,  it  has  never  been 
able  to  recover  its  independence.     The  Persian  advance  on 
the  south  shore  toward  Carthage  failed  because  of  the  indis- 
position of  the   Phoenicians   to   assist  in  any  operations 
against  that  city.     We  must  particularly  remark  that  the 


80  OS   HINDU   THEOI-OGY  [CH.  III. 

ravaging  of  Egypt  by  Cambyses  was  contemporaneous 
with  the  cultivation  of  philosophy  in  the  southern  Italian 
towns — somewhat  more  than  five  hundred  years  before 
Christ. 

Among  the  incidents  occurring  during  the  struggles 
between  the  Egyptian  and  Babylonian  kings  there  is  one 
deserving  to  be  brought  into  conspicuous  prominence, 
from  the  importance  of  its  consequences  in  European 
The  Fan  of  history.  It  was  the  taking  of  Tyre  by  Ncbu- 
TJ're  chadnezzar.  So  long  as  that  city  dominated  in 

the  Mediterranean,  it  was  altogether  impossible  for  Greek 
maritime  power  to  be  developed.  The  strength  of  Tyre 
is  demonstrated  by  her  resistance  to  the  whole  Babylonian 
power  for  thirteen  years,  "  until  every  head  was  bald  and 
every  shoulder  peeled."  The  place  was,  in  the  end,  utterly 
destroyed.  It  was  made  as  bare  as  the  top  of  a  rock  on 
which  the  fisherman  spreads  his  nets.  The  blow  thus 
struck  at  the  heart  of  Tyrian  commerce  could  not  but  be 
felt  at  the  utmost  extremities.  "  The  isles  of  the  sea 
were  troubled  at  her  departure."  It  was  during  this 
time  that  Greece  fairly  emerged  as  a  Mediterranean  naval 
power.  Nor  did  the  inhabitants  of  New  Tyre  ever  recover 
the  ancient  position.  Their  misfortunes  had  given  them 
a  rival.  A  re-establishment  in  an  island  on  the  coast  was 
not  a  restoration  of  their  stipremacy.  Carrying  out  what 
Greece  instinctively  felt  to  be  her  national  policy,  one  of 
the  first  acts  of  Alexander's  Asiatic  campaign,  two  hundred 
and  fifty  years  subsequently,  was  the  siege  of  the  new 
city,  and,  after  almost  superhuman  exertions,  its  capture, 
by  building  a  mole  from  the  mainland.  He  literally 
levelled  the  place  to  the  ground ;  a  countless  multitude 
was  massacred,  two  thousand  persons  were  crucified,  and 
Tyrian  influence  disappeared  for  ever. 

In  early  Greek  history  there  are,  therefore,  two  leading 
Foreien  foreign  events  :  1st,  the  opening  of  the  Egyptian 
epuchs  in  ports,  B.C.  C70  ;  2nd,  the  downfall  of  Old  Tyre, 

reekhi8tory.   573        rphe  eflfect   Qf   the    firgt    wag    chiefly    intel. 

lectual ;  that  of  the  second  was  to  permit  the  commencement 
of  commercial  prosperity  and  give  life  to  Athens. 

At  the  dawn  of  European  civilization,  Egypt  was, 
therefore,  in  process  of  decadence,  gradually  becoming  less 


CH,  III.J  EGYPTIAN  CIVILIZATION.  81 

and  less  able  to  resist  its  own  interior  causes  of  destruc- 
tion, or  the  attempts  of  its  Asiatic  rivals,  who 
eventually  brought  it  to  ruin.  At  the  first  dffiffi^ 
historical  appearance  of  the  country  of  the  Nile  and  art  in 
it  is  hoary  and  venerable  with  age.  The 
beautiful  Scripture  pictures  of  the  journey  of  Abram  and 
Sarai,  in  the  famine,  the  going  down  of  Joseph,  the  exodus 
of  the  Israelites,  all  point  to  a  long-settled  system,  a 
tranquil  and  prosperous  state.  Do  we  ask  any  proof  of 
the  condition  of  art  to  which  the  Egyptians  had  attained 
at  the  time  of  their  earliest  monuments?  The  masonry 
of  the  Great  Pyramid,  built  thirty-four  hundred  years 
before  Christ,  has  never  yet  been  surpassed.  So  ac- 
curately was  that  wonder  of  the  world  planned  and 
constructed,  that  at  this  day  the  variation  of  the  compass 
may  actually  be  determined  by  the  position  of  its  sides; 
yet,  when  Jacob  went  into  Egypt,  that  pyramid  had  been 
biiilt  as  many  centuries  as  have  intervened  from  the  birth 
of  Christ  to  the  present  day.  If  we  turn  from  the  monu- 
ments to  their  inscriptions,  there  are  renewed  evidences  of 
antiquity.  The  hieroglyphic  writing  had  passed  through 
all  its  stages  of  formation ;  its  principles  had  become 
ascertained  and  settled  long  before  we  gain  the  first 
glimpse  of  it ;  the  decimal  and  duodecimal  systems  of 
arithmetic  were  in  use ;  the  arts  necessary  in  hydraulic 
engineering,  massive  architecture,  and  the  ascertainment 
of  the  boundaries  of  land,  had  reached  no  insignificant 
degree  of  perfection.  Indeed,  there  would  be  but  very 
little  exaggeration  in  affirming  that  we  are  practically  as 
near  the  early  Egyptian  ages  as  was  Herodotus  himself. 
Well  might  the  Egyptian  priests  say  to  the  earliest  Greek 
philosophers,  "You  Greeks  are  mere  children,  talkative 
and  vain  ;  you  know  nothing  at  all  of  the  past." 

Traces  of  the  prehistoric,  premonumental  life  of  Egypt 
are  still  preserved  in  the  relics  of  its  language,  prehistoric 
and  the  well-known  principles  of  its  religion.  life  of  Eeypl- 
Of  the  former,  many  of  the  words  are  referable  to  Indo- 
Germanic  roots,  an  indication  that  the  country  at  an  early 
period  must  have  been  conquered  from  its  indigenous 
African  possessors  by  intrusive  expeditions  from  Asia; 
and  this  is  supported  by  the  remarkable  principles  of 

5* 


82  HINDU   THEOLOGY    AND  [CH.  III. 

Egyptian  religion.  The  races  of  Central  Asia  had  at  a 
very  early  time  attained  to  the  psychical  stage  of  mono- 
theism. Africa  is  only  now  emerging  from  the  basest 
fetichism  :  the  negro  priest  is  still  a  sorcerer  and  rain-maker. 
The  Egyptian  religion,  as  is  well  known,  provided  for  the 
vulgar  a  suitable  worship  of  complex  idolatry,  but  for 
those  emancipated  from  superstition  it  offered  true  and 
even  noble  conceptions.  The  coexistence  of  these  apparent 
incompatibilities  in  the  same  faith  seems  incapable  of 
any  other  explanation  than  that  of  an  amalgamation  of 
two  distinct  systems,  just  as  occurred  again  many  ages 
subsequently  under  Ptolemy  Soter. 

As  a  critical  attention  is  being  bestowed  by  modern 
influence  of  scholars  upon  Egyptian  remains,  we  learn  more 
Enypt  on  ir,e  truly  what  is  the  place  in  history  of  that 
ancUrt  of  venerable  country.  It  is  their  boast  that  the 
Europe.  ^ay  jg  not  distant  when  there  will  be  no  more 
difficulty  in  translating  a  page  of  hieroglyphics  than 
in  translating  one  of  Latin  or  Greek.  Even  now, 
what  a  light  has  been  thrown  on  all  branches  of  ancient 
literature,  science,  art,  mythology,  domestic  life,  by  re- 
searches which  it  may  be  said  commenced  only  yesterday ! 
From  Egypt,  it  now  appears,  were  derived  the  prototypes 
of  the  Greek  architectural  orders,  and  even  their  ornaments 
and  conventional  designs ;  thence  came  the  models  of  the 
Greek  and  Etruscan  vases  ;  thence  came  many  of  the 
ante-Homeric  legends — the  accusation  of  the  dead,  the 
trial  before  the  judges  of  hell ;  the  reward  and  punishment 
of  every  man,  from  the  Pharaoh  who  had  descended  from 
his  throne  to  the  slave  who  had  escaped  from  his  chain ; 
the  dog  Cerberus,  the  Stygian  stream,  the  Lake  of 
Oblivion,  the  piece  of  money,  Charon  and  his  boat,  the 
fields  of  Aahlu  or  Elysium,  and  the  islands  of  the  blessed  ; 
thence  came  the  first  ritual  for  the  dead,  litanies  to  the 
sun,  and  painted  or  illuminated  missals ;  thence  came  the 
dogma  of  a  queen  of  heaven.  What  other  country  can 
offer  such  noble  and  enduring  edifices  to  the  gods  ;  temples 
with  avenues  of  sphinxes ;  massive  pylons  adorned  with 
obelisks  in  front,  which  even  imperial  Rome  and  modern 
Paris  have  not  thought  it  beneath  them  to  appropriate ; 
porticoes  and  halls  of  columns,  on  which  were  carved  the 


CH.  III.]  EGYPTIAN  CIVILIZATION.  83 

portraits  of  kings  and  effigies  of  the  gods  ?  On  the  walls  of 
the  tombs  still  remain  Pthah,  the  creator,  and  Neph,  the 
divine  spirit,  sitting  at  the  potter's  wheel,  turning  clay  to 
form  men;  and  Athor,  who  receives  the  setting  sun  into 
her  arms  ;  and  Osiris,  the  judge  of  the  dead.  The  granite 
statues  have  outlived  the  gods  ! 

Moreover,  the  hieroglyphics  furnish  intrinsic  evidence 
that  among  this  people  arose  the  earliest  Thehierogiy- 
attempts  at  the  perpetuation  and  imparting  of  Pbics- 
ideas  by  writing.  Though  doubtless  it  was  in  the  begin- 
ning a  mere  picture-writing,  like  that  of  the  Mexicans,  it 
had  already,  at  the  first  moment  we  meet  with  it,  under- 
gone a  twofold  development — ideographic  and  phonetic  ; 
the  one  expressing  ideas,  the  other  sounds.  Under  the 
Macedonian  kings  the  hieroglyphics  had  become  restricted 
to  religious  uses,  showing  conclusively  that  the  old  priest- 
hood had  never  recovered  the  terrible  blows  struck  against 
it  by  Cainbyses  and  Ochus.  From  that  time  forth  they 
were  less  and  less  known.  It  is  said  that  one  of  the 
Eoman  emperors  was  obliged  to  offer  a  reward  for  the 
translation  of  an  obelisk.  To  the  early  Christian  the 
hieroglyphic  inscription  was  an  abomination,  as  full  of 
the  relics  of  idolatry,  and  indicating  an  inspiration  of  the 
devil.  He  defaced  the  monuments  wherever  he  could  make 
them  yield ;  and  in  many  cases  has  preserved  them  for  us 
by  plastering  them  over  to  hide  them  from  his  sight. 

In  those  enigmatical  characters  an  extensive  literature 
once  existed,  of  which  the  celebrated  books  of  Hermes 
were  perhaps  a  corruption  or  a  relic ;  a  literature  embrac- 
ing compositions  on  music,  astronomy,  cosmogony,  geo- 
graphy, medicine,  anatomy,  chemistry,  magic,  and  many 
other  subjects  that  have  amused  the  curiosity  of  man. 
Yet  of  those  characters  the  most  singular  misconceptions 
have  been  entertained  almost  to  our  own  times.  Thus,  in 
1802,  Palin  thought  that  the  papyri  were  the  Psalms  of 
David  done  into  Chinese,  Lenoir  that  they  were  Hebrew 
documents  ;  it  was  even  asserted  that  the  inscriptions  in 
the  temple  of  Denderah  were  the  100th  Psalm,  a  pleasant 
ecclesiastical  conceit,  reminding  one  who  has  seen  in 
Egyptian  museums  old  articles  of  brass  and  glass,  of  the 
stories  delivered  down  from  hand  to  hand,  that  brass  was 


84  HINDU   THEOLOGY   AND  [CH.  III. 

first  made  at  the  burning  of  Corinth,  and  glass  first  dis- 
covered by  shipwrecked  mariners,  who  propped  their 
kettle,  while  it  boiled,  on  pieces  of  nitre. 

Thousands  of  years  have  passed  since  the  foundation  of 
Antiqui.yor  tlic  first  Egyptian  dynasty.  The  Pyramids 
the  Egyptian  have  seen  the  old  empire,  the  Hycksos  mon- 
rthy>  archs,  the  New  Empire,  the  Persian,  the  Mace- 
donian, the  Roman,  the  Mohammedan.  They  have  stood 
while  the  heavens  themselves  have  changed.  They  were 
already  "  five  hundred  years  old  when  the  Southern  Cross 
disappeared  from  the  horizon  of  the  countries  of  the 
Baltic."  The  pole-star  itself  is  a  newcomer  to  them. 
Humboldt,  referring  to  these  incidents,  remarks  that  "  the 
past  seems  to  be  visibly  nearer  to  us  when  we  thus  con- 
nect its  measurement  with  great  and  memorable  events." 
No  country  has  had  such  a  varied  history  as  this  birth- 
place of  European  civilization.  Through  the  darkness  of 
fifty  centuries  we  may  not  be  able  to  discern  the  motives 
of  men,  but  through  periods  very  much  longer  we  can 
demonstrate  the  conditions  of  Nature.  If  nations,  in  one 
sense,  depend  on  the  former,  in  a  higher  sense  they  depend 
on  the  latter.  It  was  not  without  reason  that  the  Egyp- 
Causes  of  the  tians  took  the  lead  in  Mediterranean  civilization, 
riseofciviii-  The  geographical  structure  of  their  country  sur- 
passes even  its  hoary  monuments  in  teaching  us 
the  conditions  under  which  that  people  were  placed. 
Nature  is  a  surer  guide  than  the  traces  of  man,  whose 
works  are  necessarily  transitory.  The  aspect  of  Egypt 
has  changed  again  and  again ;  its  structure,  since  man 
has  inhabited  it,  never.  The  fields  have  disappeared,  but 
the  land  remains. 

Why  was  it  that  civilization  thus  rose  on  the  banks  of 
the  Nile,  and  not  upon  those  of  the  Danube  or  Mississippi  ? 
Civilization  depends  on  climate  and  agriculture.  In 
Egypt  the  harvests  may  ordinarily  be  foretold  and  con- 
trolled. Of  few  other  parts  of  the  world  can  the  same  be 
said.  In  most  countries  the  cultivation  of  the  soil  is 
uncertain.  From  seed-time  to  harvest,  the  meteorological 
variations  are  so  numerous  and  great,  that  no  skill  can 
predict  the  amount  of  yearly  produce.  Without  any  pre- 
monition, the  crops  may  be  cut  off  by  long-continued 


CH.  IH.J  EGYPTIAN  CIVILIZATION.  85 

droughts,  or  destroyed  by  too  ranch  rain.  Nor  is  it  suffi- 
cient that  a  requisite  amount  of  water  should  fall ;  to 
produce  the  proper  effect,  it  must  fall  at  particular  periods. 
The  labour  of  the  farmer  is  at  the  mercy  of  the  winds  and 
clouds. 

With  difficulty,  therefore,  could  a  civilized  state  originate 
under  such  circumstances.  So  long  as  life  is  a  scene  of 
uncertainty,  the  hope  of  yesterday  blighted  by  the  realities 
of  to  day,  man  is  the  maker  of  expedients,  but  not  of  laws. 
In  his  solicitude  as  to  his  approaching  lot,  he  has  neither 
time  nor  desire  to  raise  his  eyes  to  the  heavens  to  watch 
and  record  their  phenomena ;  no  leisure  to  look  upon  him- 
self, and  consider  what  and  where  he  is.  In  the  imperious 
demand  for  a  present  support,  he  dares  not  venture  on 
speculative  attempts  at  ameliorating  his  state;  he  is 
doomed  to  be  a  helpless,  isolated,  spell-bound  savage,  or, 
if  not  isolated,  the  companion  of  other  savages  as  care- 
worn as  himself.  Under  such  circumstances,  however,  if 
once  the  preliminary  conditions  and  momentum  of  civiliza- 
tion be  imparted  to  him,  the  very  things  which  have 
hitherto  tended  to  depress  him  produce  an  opposite  effect. 
Instead  of  remaining  in  sameness  and  apathy,  the  vicissi- 
tudes to  which  he  is  now  exposed  urge  him  onward ;  and 
thus  it  is  that,  though  the  civilization  of  Europe  depended 
for  its  commencement  on  the  sameness  and  stability  of  an 
African  climate,  the  conquests  of  Nature  which  mark  its 
more  advanced  stage  have  been  made  in  the  trying  life  of 
the  temperate  zone. 

There  is  a  country  in  which  man  is  not  the  sport  of  the 
seasons,  in  which  he    need  have   no   anxieties  AKriculture 
for  his  future  well-being — a  country  in  which  in  a  rainiuss 
the  sunshines  and  heats  vary  very  little  from  w 
year  to  year.     In  the  Thebaid  heavy  rain  is  said  to  be  a 
prodigy.     But,  at  the  time  when  the  Dog-star  rises  with 
the  sun,  the  river  begins  to  swell ;  a  tranquil  inundation 
by  degrees  covering  the  land,  at  once  watering  and  enrich- 
ing it.     If  the  Kilometer  which  measures  the  height  of 
the  flood  indicates  eight  cubits,  the  crops  will  be  scanty ; 
but  if  it  reaches  fourteen  cubits,  there  will  be  a  plentiful 
harvest.     In  the  spring  of  the  year  it  may  be  known  how 
the  fields  will  be  in  the  autumn.     Agriculture  is  certain 


86  HINDU   THEOLOGY   AND  [CH.  IIL 

in  Egypt,  and  lliere  man  first  became  civilized.  The  date- 
tree,  moreover,  furnishes  to  Africa  a  food  almost  with- 
out expense.  The  climate  renders  it  necessary  to  use,  for 
the  most  part,  vegetable  diet,  and  but  little  clothing  is 
required. 

The  American  counterpart  of  Egypt  in  this  physical  con- 
Rainless  dition  is  Peru,  the  coast  of  which  is  also  a  rain- 
countries  of  less  district.  Peru  is  the  Egypt  of  civilization 
the  West.  Q£  ^o  \yes^ern  continent.  There  is  also  a  rain- 
less strand  on  the  Pacific  coast  of  Mexico.  It  is  an  incident 
full  of  meaning  in  the  history  of  human  progress,  that,  in 
regions  far  apart,  civilization  thus  commenced  in  rainless 
countries. 

In  Upper  Egypt,  the  cradle  of  civilization,  the  influence 
of  atmospheric  water  is  altogether  obliterated,  for,  in 
an  agricultural  point  of  view,  the  country  is  rainless. 
Variable  meteorological  conditions  are  there  eliminated. 

Where  the  Kile  breaks  through  the  mountain  gate  at 
inundation*  Essouan,  it  is  observed  that  its  waters  begin  to 
of  ihe  Nile.  rise  about  the  end  of  the  month  of  May,  and  in 
eight  or  nine  weeks  the  inundation  is  at  its  height.  This 
flood  in  the  river  is  due  to  the  great  rains  which  have 
fallen  in  the  mountainous  countries  among  which  the 
Kile  takes  its  rise,  and  which  have  been  precipitated  from 
the  trade-winds  that  blow,  except  where  disturbed  by  the 
monsoons,  over  the  vast  expanse  of  the  tropical  Indian 
Ocean.  Thus  dried,  the  east  wind  pursues  its  solemn 
course  over  the  solitudes  of  Central  Africa,  a  cloudless 
and  a  rainless  wind,  its  track  marked  by  desolation  and 
deserts.  At  first  the  river  becomes  red,  and  then  green, 
because  the  flood  of  its  great  Abyssinian  branch,  the  Blue 
Kile,  arrives  first ;  but,  soon  after,  that  of  the  White  Kile 
makes  its  appearance,  and  from  the  overflowing  banks  not 
only  water,  but  a  rich  and  fertilizing  mud,  is  discharged. 
Gradual  rise  ^  *K  owino  *°  *ne  solid  material  thus  brought 
of  the  whole  down  that  the  river  in  countless  ages  has  raised 
its  own  bed,  and  has  embanked  itself  with 
shelving  deposits  that  descend  on  either  side  toward  the 
desert.  For  this  reason  it  is  that  the  inundation  is  seen  on 
the  edge  of  the  desert  first,  and,  as  the  flood  rises,  the  whole 
country  up  to  the  river  itself  is  laid  under  water.  By  the 


CH.  III.]  EGYPTIAN  CIVILIZATION.  87 

middle  of  September  the  supply  begins  to  fail  and  the 
waters  abate ;  by  the  end  of  October  the  stream  has 
returned  to  its  usual  limits.  The  fields  are  left  covered 
with  a  fertile  deposit,  the  maximum  quantity  of  which  is 
about  six  inches  thick  in  a  hundred  years.  It  is  thought 
that  the  bed  of  the  river  rises  four  feet  in  a  thousand 
years,  and  the  fertilized  land  in  its  width  continually 
encroaches  on  the  desert.  Since  the  reign  of  Amenophis 
III.  it  has  increased  by  one-third.  He  lived  B.C.  1430. 
There  have  accumulated  round  the  pedestal  of  his  Colossus 
seven  feet  of  mud. 

In  the  recent  examinations  made  by  the  orders  of  the 
Viceroy  of  Egypt,  close  by  the  fallen  statue  of  Barneses 
II.,  at  Memphis,  who  reigned,  according  to  Geological 
Lepsius,  from  B.C.  1394  to  B.C.  1328,  a  shaft  age  of  Egypt. 
was  sunk  to  more  than  24  feet.  The  water  which  then 
infiltrated  compelled  a  resort  to  boring,  which  was  con- 
tinued until  41  feet  4£  inches  were  reached.  The  whole 
consisted  of  Nile  deposits,  alternate  layers  of  loam  and 
sand  of  the  same  composition  throughout.  From  the 
greatest  depth  a  fragment  of  pottery  was  obtained. 
Ninety-five  of  these  borings  were  made  in  various  places, 
but  on  no  occasion  was  solid  rock  reached.  The  organic 
remains  were  all  recent ;  not  a  trace  of  an  extinct  fossil 
occurred,  but  an  abundance  of  the  residues  of  burnt  bricks 
and  pottery.  In  their  examination  from  Essouan  to 
Cairo,  the  French  estimated  the  mud  deposit  to  be  five 
inches  for  each  century.  From  an  examination  of  the 
results  at  Heliopolis,  Mr.  Horner  makes  it  3*18  inches. 
The  Colossus  of  Rameses  II.  is  surrounded  by  a  sediment 
nine  feet  four  inches  deep,  fairly  estimated.  Its  date  of 
erection  was  about  3215  years  ago,  which  gives  3£  inches 
per  century.  But  beneath  it  similar  layers  continue  to 
the  depth  of  30  feet,  which,  at  the  same  rate,  would  give 
13,500  years,  to  A.D.  1854,  at  which  time  the  examination 
was  made.  Every  precaution  seems  to  have  been  taken  to 
obtain  accurate  results. 

The  extent  of  surface  affected  by  the  inundations  of  the 
Nile  is,  in  a  geographical  point  of  view,  altogether  Itg  geoRraphy 
insignificant ;  yet,  such  as  it  was,  it  constituted  and  topo- 
Egypt.  Commencing  at  the  Cataract  of  Essouan,  graphi- 


88  HINDU   THEOLOGY   AND  [CH.  III. 

at  the  sacred  island  of  Philae,  on  which  to  this  day  here 
and  there  the  solitary  palm-tree  looks  down,  it  reached  to 
the  Mediterranean  Sea,  from  24°  3'  N.  to  31°  37'  N.  The 
river  runs  in  a  valley,  bounded  on  one  side  by  the  eastern 
and  on  the  other  by  the  Libyan  chain  of  mountains,  and 
of  which  tho  average  breadth  is  about  seven  miles,  the 
arable  land,  however,  not  averaging  more  than  five  and  a 
half.  At  the  widest  place  it  is  ten  and  "three-quarters,  at. 
the  narrowest  two.  The  entire  surface  of  irrigated  and 
fertile  land  in  the  Delta  is  4500  square  miles ;  the  arable 
land  of  Egypt,  2255  square  miles ;  and  in  the  Fyoom,  340 
square  miles,  an  insignificant  surface,  yet  it  supported 
seven  millions  of  people. 

Here  agriculture  was  so  precise  that  it  might  almost  be 
pronounced  a  mathematical  art.  The  disturbances  arising 
from  atmospheric  conditions  were  eliminated,  and  the 
variations,  as  connected  with  the  supply  of  river-water, 
ascertained  in  advance.  Tho  priests  proclaimed  how  the 
flood  stood  on  the  Nilometer,  and  the  husbandman  mado 
corresponding  preparations  for  a  scanty  or  an  abundant 
harvest. 

In  such  a  state  of  things,  it  was  an  obvious  step  to 
improve  upon  the  natural  conditions  by  artificial  means  ; 
dykes,  and  canals,  and  flood-gates,  with  other  hydraulic 
apparatus,  would,  even  in  the  beginning  of  society, 
unavoidably  be  suggested,  that  in  one  locality,  the  water 
might  be  detained  longer;  in  another,  shut  off  when 
there  was  danger  of  excess ;  in  another,  more  abundantly 
introduced. 

There  followed,  as  a  consequence  of  this  condition  of 
things,  the  establishment  of  a  strong  govern- 

Controlof  '     i  l  xt. 

agriculture  by  ment,  having  a  direct  control  over  the  agri- 
tbe  govern-  culture  of  the  state  by  undertaking  and  sup- 

ment.  .  ,  ._    .  f ,  ,        1 

porting  these  artificial  improvements,  and  sus- 
taining itself  by  a  tax  cheerfully  paid,  and  regulated  iu 
amount  by  the  quantity  of  water  supplied  from  the  river 
to  each  estate.  Such,  indeed,  was  the  fundamental 
political  system  of  the  country.  The  first  king  of  the  old 
empire  undertook  to  turn  the  river  into  a  new  channel  he 
made  for  it,  a  task  which  might  seem  to  demand  very  able 
engineering,  and  actually  accomplished  it.  It  is  more 


OH.  III.j  EGYPTIAN   CIVILIZATION.  89 

than  five  thousand  years  since  Menes  lived.  There  must 
have  preceded  his  times  many  centuries^  during  which 
knowledge  and  skill  had  been  increasing,  before  such  a 
work  could  even  have  been  contemplated. 

I  shall  not  indulge  in  any  imaginary  description  of  the 
manner  in  which,  under  such  favourable  circum- 
stances, the  powers  of  the  human   mind   were  changes  occa! 
developed  and  civilization  arose.    In  inaccessible  ^°ne«d  by the 
security,  the  inhabitants  of  this  valley  were 
protected  on  the  west  by  a  burning  sandy  desert,  on  the 
east  by  the  Red  Sea.      Nor  shall  1  say  anything  more  of 
those  remote  geological  times  when  the  newly-made  river 
first  flowed  over  a  rocky  and  barren  desert  on  its  way  to 
the  Mediterranean  Sea ;  nor  how,  in  the  course  of  ages,  it 
had  by  degrees  laid  down  a  fertile   stratum,  embanking 
itself  in  the   rich   soil   it   had   borne   from   the   tropical 
mountains.     Yet  it  is  none  the  less  true  that  such  was  the 
slow  construction  of  Egypt  as  a  habitable  country  ;    such 
were  the  gradual  steps  by  which  it  was  fitted  to  become 
the  seat  of  man.     The  pulse  of  its  life-giving  artery  makes 
but  one  beat  in  a  year ;   what,  then,  are  a  few  hundreds 
of  centuries  in  such  a  process  ? 

The  Egyptians  had,  at  an  early  period,  observed  that 
the    rising    of   the    Kile    coincided    with   the 
heliacal  rising  of  Sirius,  the  Dog-star,  and  hence  tions  lead  to 
they  very  plausibly    referred    it    to    celestial  agtron"^y°f 
agencies.      Men    are    ever    prone    to    mistake 
coincidences  for  causes ;  and  thus  it  came  to  pass  that  the 
appearance  of  that  star  on  the  horizon  at  the  rising  of  the 
sun  was  not  only  viewed  as  the  signal,  but  as  the  cause 
of  the  inundations.     Its  coming  to  the   desired   position 
might,    therefore,    be    well    expected,    and   it   was   soon 
observed  that  this  took  place  with  regularity  at  periods  of 
about  360  days.     This  was  the  first  determination  of  the 
length  of  the  year.      It  is  worthy  of  remark,  as  showing 
how  astronomy  and  religious  rites  were  in  the  beginning 
connected,  that   the  priests  of  the  mysterious  temple  of 
Philse   placed   before    the    tomb    of    Osiris   every   morn- 
ing 360    vases    of    milk,    each  one  commemorating  one 
day,  thus  showing  that  the  origin  of  that   rite   was   in 
those  remote  ages  when  it  was  thought  that  the  year  was 


90  HINDU  THEOLOGY   AND  [CH.  HI. 

360  days  long.  It  was  doubtless  such  circumstances  that 
led  the  Egyptians  to  the  cultivation  of  historical  habits. 
In  this  they  differed  from  the  Hindus,  who  kept  no 
records. 

The  Dog-star  Sirius  is  the  most  splendid  star  in  the 
Tbe  phiio-  heavens  ;  to  the  Egyptian  the  inundation  was 
sophyofstar-  the  most  important  event  upon  earth.  Mis- 
taking a  coincidence  for  a  cause,  he  was  led  to 
the  belief  that  when  that  brilliant  star  emerged  in  the 
morning  from  the  rays  of  the  sun,  and  began  to  assert  its 
own  inherent  power,  the  sympathetic  river,  moved  there- 
by, commenced  to  rise.  A  false  inference  like  this  soon 
dilated  into  a  general  doctrine ;  for  if  one  star  could  in 
this  way  manifest  a  direct  control  over  the  course  of 
terrestrial  affairs,  why  should  not  another — indeed,  why 
should  not  all?  Moreover,  it  could  not  have  escaped 
notice  that  the  daily  tides  of  the  l«ed  Sea  are  connected 
with  the  movements  and  position  of  the  sun  and  moon, 
following  those  luminaries  in  the  time  of  their  occurrence, 
and  being  determined  by  their  respective  position  as 
to  amount  at  spring  and  at  neap.  But  the  necessary 
result  of  such  a  view  is  no  other  than  the  admission  of  the 
astrological  influence  of  the  heavenly  bodies;  first,  as 
respects  inanimate  nature,  and  then  as  respects  the 
fortune  and  fate  of  men.  It  is  not  until  the  vast  distance 
of  the  starry  bodies  is  suspected  that  man  begins  to  feel 
the  necessity  of  a  mediator  between  him  and  them,  and 
star-worship  passes  to  its  second  phase. 

To  what  part  of  the  world  could  the  Egyptian  travel 
without  seeing  in  the  skies  the  same  constellations  ?  Far 
from  the  banks  of  the  Nile,  in  the  western  deserts,  in 
Syria,  in  Arabia,  the  stars  are  the  same.  They  are 
omnipresent ;  for  we  may  lose  sight  of  the  things  of  the 
earth,  but  not  of  those  of  the  heavens.  The  air  of  fate- 
like  precision  with  which  their  appointed  movements  are 
accomplished,  their  solemn  silence,  their  incomprehensible 
distances,  might  satisfy  an  observer  that  they  are  far 
removed  from  the  influences  of  all  human  power,  though, 
perhaps,  they  may  be  invoked  by  human  prayer. 

Thus  star-worship  found  for  itself  a  plausible  justifica- 
tion. The  Egyptian  system,  at  its  highest  development, 


CH.  IU.J  EGYPTIAN   CIVILIZATION.  91 

combined  the  adoration  of  the  heavenly  bodies — the  sun, 
the  moon,  Venus,  &c.,  with  the  deified  attributes  principlegof 
of  God.     The   great  and  venerable   divinities,  Kgyptian 
as  Osiris,  Pthah,  Amun,  were  impersonations  of  theology- 
such   attributes,  just  as  we   speak   of  the  Creator,   the 
Almighty.     It  was   held   that   not   only  has  God   never 
appeared  upon  earth  in  the  human  form,  but  that  such 
is  altogether  an  impossibility,  since  he  is  the  animating 
principle  of  the  entire  universe,  visible  nature  being  only 
a  manifestation  of  him. 

These  impersonated  attributes  were  arranged  in  various 
trinities,  in  each  of  which  the  third  member  is  a  God 
procession  from  the  other  two,  the  doctrine  and  Trinities  and 
even  expressions  in  this  respect  being  full  of  ll 
interest  to  one  who  studies  the  gradual  development  of 
comparative  theology  in  Europe.  Thus  from  Amun  by 
Maut  proceeds  Khonso,  from  Osiris  by  Isis  proceeds  Horus, 
from  Keph  by  Sate  proceeds  Anouke.  While,  therefore, 
it  was  considered  unlawful  to  represent  God  except  by  his 
attributes,  these  trinities  and  their  persons  offered  abun- 
dant means  of  idolatrous  worship  for  the  vulgar.  It  was 
admitted  that  there  had  been  terrestrial  manifestations  of 
these  divine  attributes  for  the  salvation  of  men.  Thus 
Osiris  was  incarnate  in  the  flesh  :  he  fell  a  sacrifice  to  the 
evil  principle,  and,  after  his  death  and  resurrection, 
became  the  appointed  judge  of  the  dead.  In  his  capacity 
of  President  of  the  West,  or  of  the  region  of  the  setting 
stars,  he  dwells  in  the  under  world,  which  is  traversed  by 
the  sun  at  night. 

The  Egyptian  priests  affirmed  that  nothing  is  ever 
annihilated ;  to  die  is  therefore  only  to  assume  a  new 
form.  Herodotus  says  that  they  were  the  first  to  discover 
that  the  soul  is  immortal,  their  conception  of  it  being 
that  it  is  an  emanation  from  or  a  particle  of  the  universal 
soul,  which  in  a  less  degree  animates  all  animals  and 
plants,  and  even  inorganic  things.  Their  dogma  that 
there  had  been  divine  incarnations  obliged  incarna,ions . 
them  to  assert  that  there  had  been  a  fall  of  fc»u  of  man ; ' 
man,  this  seeming  to  be  necessary  to  obtain  a  rt 
logical  argument  in  justification  of  prodigies  so  great. 
For  the  relief  of  the  guilty  soul,  they  prescribed  in-  this 


92  HINDU  THEOLOGY  AND  [CH.  III. 

life  fasts  and  penances,  and  in  the  future  a  transmigration 
through  animals  for  purification.  At  death,  the  merits  of 
The  future  the  soul  were  ascertained  by  a  formal  trial 
judgment  before  Osiris  in  the  shadowy  region  of  Amenti — 
the  under  world — in  presence  of  the  four  genii  of  that 
realm,  and  of  forty-two  assessors.  To  this  jiulgment  the 
shade  was  conducted  by  Horus,  who  carried  him  past 
Cerberus,  a  hippopotamus,  the  gaunt  guardian  of  the  gate. 
He  stood  by  in  silence  while  Anubis  weighed  his  heart  in 
the  scales  of  justice.  It'  his  good  works  preponderated,  he 
was  dismissed  to  the  fields  of  Aahlu — the  Elysian  Fields  ; 
if  his  evil,  he  was  condemned  to  transmigration. 

But  that  this  doctrine  of  a  judgment  in  another  world 
might  not  decline  into  an  idle  legend,  it  was  enforced  by 
a  preparatory  trial  in  this — a  trial  of  fearful  and  living 
import.  From  the  sovereign  to  the  meanest  subject,  every 
The  trm  of  man  underwent  a  sepulchral  inquisition.  As 
the  dead.  goon  ag  anv  onc  died,  his  body  was  sent  to  the 
embalmers,  who  kept  it  forty  days,  and  for  thirty-two 
in  addition  the  family  mourned ,  the  mummy,  in  its  coffin, 
was  placed  erect  in  an  inner  chamber  of  the  house.  Notice 
was  then  sent  to  the  forty-two  assessors  of  the  district ; 
and  on  an  appointed  day,  the  corpse  was  carried  to  the 
sacred  lake,  of  which  every  nome,  and,  indeed,  every  large 
town,  had  one  toward  the  west.  Arrived  on  its  shore,  the 
trial  commenced ;  any  person  might  bring  charges  against 
the  deceased,  or  speak  in  his  behalf ;  but  woe  to  the  false 
accuser.  The  assessors  then  passed  sentence  according  to 
the  evidence  before  them :  if  they  found  an  evil  life, 
sepulture  was  denied,  and,  in  the  midst  of  social  disgrace, 
the  friends  bore  back  the  mummy  to  their  home,  to  be 
redeemed  by  their  own  good  works  in  future  years ;  or,  if 
too  poor  to  give  it  a  place  of  refuge,  it  was  buried  on  the 
Origin  of  the  margin  of  the  lake,  the  culprit  ghost  waiting 
Greek  Hades.  an(j  wandering  for  a  hundred  years.  On  these 
Stygian  shores  the  bones  of  some  are  still  dug  up  in  our 
day :  they  have  remained  unsepulchred  for  more  than 
thirty  times  their  predestined  century.  Even  to  wicked 
kings  a  burial  had  thus  been  denied.  But,  if  the  verdict 
of  the  assessors  was  favourable,  a  coin  was  paid  to  the 
boatman  Charon  for  ferriage  ;  a  cake  was  provided  for  the 


CH.  III.j  EGYPTIAN  CIVILIZATION.  93 

hippopotamus  Cerberus ;  they  rowed  across  the  lake  in  the 
baris,  or  death-boat,  the  priest  announcing  to  Osiris  and 
the  unearthly  assessors  the  good  deeds  of  the  deceased. 
Arriving  on  the  opposite  shore,  the  procession  walked  in 
solemn  silence,  and  the  mummy  was  then  deposited  in  its 
final  resting-place — the  catacombs. 

From  this  it  may  be  gathered  that  the  Eg}rptian  re- 
ligion did  not  remain  a  mere  speculative  subject,  but  was 
enforced  on  the  people  by  the  most  solemn  ceremonies. 
Moreover,  in  the  great  temples,  grand  pro- 

i  •  i    i        , '   -,     '•,   °  Ceremonies, 

cessional  services  were  celebrated,  the  precursors  creeds, 
of  some  that  still  endure.     There  were  sacrifices  oracles. 
of  meat-offerings,  libations,  incense.     The   na- 
tional double  creed,  adapted  in  one  branch  to  the  vulgar, 
in  the  other  to  the  learned,  necessarily  implied  mysteries ; 
some  of  these  were  avowedly  transported  to  Greece.     The 
machinery  of  oracles  was  resorted  to.     The  Greek  oracles 
were  of  Egyptian  origin.     So  profound  was  the  respect 
paid  to  their  commands  that  even   the   sovereigns  were 
obliged  to  obey  them.     It  was  thus  that  a  warning  from 
the  oracle  of  Amun  caused  Necho  to  stop  the  construction 
of  his  canal.     For  the  determination  of  future  events, 
omens  were  studied,  entrails  inspected,  and  nativities  were 
cast. 


CHAPTEE  IV. 
GREEK  AGE  OF  INQUIRY. 

BISE  AND   DECLINE   OF   PHYSICAL  SPECULATION. 

IONIAN  PHILOSOPHY,  commencing  from  Egyptian  Ideas,  identifies  in 
Water,  or  Air,  or  Fire,  the  Firft  Principle. — Emerging  from  the  Stage 
of  Sorcery,  it  founds  Psychology,  Bioloqy,  Cosmogony,  Astronomy,  and 
ends  in  doubting  whether  there  is  any  Criterion  of  Truth. 

ITALIAN  PHIIOSOPHY  depends  on  Numbers  and  Harmonies.  —  It 
reproduces  the  Egyptian  and  Hindu  Doctrine  of  Transmigration. 

ELEATIC  PHILOSOPHY  presents  a  great  Advance,  indicating  a  rapid 
Approach  to  Oriental  Ideas. — It  assumes  a  Pantheistic  Aspect. 

RISE  OF  PHILOSOPHY  IN  EI'ROPEAN  GREECE. — Delations  and  Influence  of 
the  Mediterranean  Commercial  and  Colonial  System. — Athens  attain* 
to  commercial  Supremacy. — Her  vast  Progress  in  Intelligence  and  Art. 
— Her  Demoralization. — She  becomes  the  Intellectual  Centre  of  the 
Mediterranean. 

Commencement  of  the  Athenian  higher  Analysis. — It  is  conducted  by  THE 
SOPHISTS,  who  reject  Philosophy,  Heligion,  and  even  Morality,  and  end 
in  Atheism. 

Political  Dangers  of  the  higher  Analysis. — Illustration  from  the  MiddU 
Ages. 

IN  Chapter  II.  I  have  described  the  origin  and  decline  of 
Origin  of  Greek  Mythology ;  in  this,  I  am-  to  relate  the 
Greek  piiiio-  first  European  attempt  at  philosophizing.  The 
Ionian  systems  spring  directly  out  of  the  con- 
temporary religious  opinions,  and  appear  as  a  phase  in 
Greek  comparative  theology. 

Contrasted  with  the  psychical  condition  of  India,  we 
cannot  but  be  struck  with  the  feebleness  of  these  first 
European  efforts.  They  correspond  to  that  period  in 
which  the  mind  has  shaken  off  its  ideas  of  sorcery,  but 
has  not  advanced  beyond  geocentral  and  anthropocentral 
conceptions.  As  is  uniformly  observed,  as  soon  as  man  has 


CH.  IV.]  GREEK  AGE  OF   INQUIRY.  95 

collected  what  he  considers  to  be  trustworthy  data,  he  forth- 
with applies  them  to  a  cosmogony,  and  develops  jts  imperfec- 
pseudo-scientific  systems.    It  is  not  until  a  later  tions- 
period  that  he  awakens  to  the  suspicion  that  we  have  no 
absolute  knowledge  of  truth. 

The  reader,  who  might,  perhaps,  be  repelled  by  the 
apparent  worthlessness  of  the  succession  of  Greek  opinions 
now  to  be  described,  will  find  them  assume  an  interest,  if 
considered  in  the  aggregate,  or  viewed  as  a  series  of  steps 
or  stages  of  European  approach  to  conclusions  long  before 
arrived  at  in  Egypt  and  India.  Far  in  advance  of  any- 
thing that  Greece  can  offer,  the  intellectual  history  of 
India  furnishes,'  systems  at  once  consistent  and  imposing — 
systems  not  remaining  useless  speculations,  but  becoming 
inwoven  in  social  life. 

Greek  philosophy  is  considered  as  having  originated 
with  Thales,  who,  though  of  Phoenician  descent,  Commences 
was  born  at  Miletus,  a  Greek  colony  in  Asia  in  Asia  Minor. 
Minor,  about  B.C.  640.  At  that  time,  as  related  in  the  last 
chapter,  the  Egyptian  ports  had  been  opened  to  foreigners 
by  Psammetichus.  In  the  civil  war  which  that  monarch 
had  been  waging  with  his  colleagues,  he  owed  his  success 
to  Ionian  and  other  Greek  mercenaries  whom  he  had 
employed ;  but,  though  proving  victor  in  the  contest,  his 
political  position  was  such  as  to  compel  him  to  depart 
from  the  maxims  followed  in  his  country  for  so  many 
thousand  years,  and  to  permit  foreigners  to  have  access  to 
it.  Hitherto  the  Europeans  had  been  only  known  to  the 
Egyptians  as  pirates  and  cannibals. 

From  the  doctrine  of  Thales,  it  may  be  inferred  that, 
though  he  had  visited  Egypt,  he  had  never  been  Doctrine  of 
in  communication  with  its  sources  of  learning,  T|lales 
but  had  merely  mingled  among  the  vulgar,  from  whom  he 
had  gathered  the  popular  notion  that  the  first  principle  is 
water.     The  state  of  things  in  Egypt  suggests  IK  derived 
that  this  primitive  dogma  of  European  philo-  from  EKrPt- 
sophy  was  a  popular  notion  in  that  country.     With  but 
little  care  on  the  part  of  men.  the  fertilizing  Nile-water 
yielded   those   abundant   crops   which   made   Egypt    the 
granary  of  the  Old  World.     It  might  therefore  be  said, 
both  philosophically  and  facetiously,  that  the  first  principle 


96  GREEK  AGK  OF   INQUIRY.  [CH.  IV. 

of  all  things  is  water.  The  harvests  depended  on  it,  and, 
importance  of  through  them,  animals  and  man.  The  govern- 
v,Mt«.-rin  Egypt.  ment  of  the  country  was  supported  by  it,  for 
the  financial  system  was  founded  on  a  tax  paid  by  the 
proprietors  of  the  land  for  the  use  of  the  public  sluices 
and  aqueducts.  There  was  not  a  peasant  to  whom  it  was 
not  apparent  that  water  is  the  first  principle  of  all  things, 
even  of  taxation ;  and,  since  it  was  not  only  necessary  to 
survey  lands  to  ascertain  the  surface  that  had  been 
irrigated,  but  to  redetermine  their  boundaries  after  the 
subsidence  of  the  flood,  even  the  scribes  and  surveyors 
might  concede  that  geometry  itself  was  indebted  for  its 
origin  to  water. 

If,  therefore,  in  any  part  of  the  Old  World,  this  doctrine 
had  both  a  vulgar  and  a  philosophical  significance,  that 
country  was  Egypt.  We  may  picture  to  ourselves  the 
inquisitive  but  ill-instructed  Thales  carried  in  some  pirate- 
ship  or  trading-bark  to  the  mysterious  Nile,  respecting 
which  Ionia  was  full  of  legends  and  myths.  He  saw  the 
aqueducts,  canals,  flood-gates,  the  great  Lake  Moeris,  dug 
by  the  hand  of  man  as  many  ages  before  his  day  as  have 
elapsed  from  his  day  to  ours ;  ho  saw  on  all  sides  the 
adoration  paid  to  the  river,  for  it  had  actually  become 
deified ;  he  learned  from  the  vulgar,  with  whom 
tim"  watcrTs  alone  he  came  in  contact,  their  universal  belief 
that  all  things  arise  from  water — from  the  vulgar 
alone,  for,  had  he  ever  been  taught  by  the 
priests,  we  should  have  found  traces  in  his  system  of  the 
doctrines  of  emanation,  transmigration,  and  absorption, 
which  were  imported  into  Greece  in  later  times.  \Ve  may 
interpret  the  story  of  Thales  on  the  principles  which 
would  apply  in  the  case  of  some  intelligent  Indian  who 
should  find  his  way  to  the  outposts  of  a  civilized  country. 
Imperfectly  acquainted  with  the  language,  and  coming  in 
contact  with  the  lower  class  alone,  he  might  learn  their 
vulgar  philosophy,  and  carry  back  the  fancied  treasure  to 
his  home. 

xAs  to  the  profound  meaning  which  some  have  been 
disposed  to  extract  from  the  dogma  of  Thales,  we  shall, 
perhaps,  be  warranted  in  rejecting  it  altogether.  It 
has  been  affirmed  that  he  attempted  to  concentrate  all 


CH.  IV.  |  GREEK   AGE   OF    INQUIRY.  97 

supernatural  powers  in  one ;  to  reduce  all  possible  agents 
to  unity  ;  in  short,  out  of  polytheism  to  bring  forth  mono- 
theism ;  to  determine  the  invariable  in  the  variable ;  and 
to  ascertain  the  beginning  of  things :  that  he  observed 
how  infinite  is  the  sea ;  how  necessary  moisture  is  to 
growth ;  nay,  even  how  essential  it  was  to  the  well-being 
of  himself ;  "  that  without  moisture  his  own  body  would 
not  have  been  what  it  was,  but  a  dry  husk  falling  to 
pieces."  Nor  can  we  adopt  the  opinion  that  the  intention 
of  Thales  was  to  establish  a  coincidence  between  philosophy 
and  the  popular  theology  as  delivered  by  Hesiod,  who 
affirms  that  Oceanus  is  one  of  the  parent-gods  of  Nature. 
The  imputation  of  irreligion  made  against  him  shows  at 
what  an  early  period  the  antagonism  of  polytheism  and 
scientific  inquiry  was  recognized.  But  it  is  possible  to 
believe  that  all  things  are  formed  out  of  one  primordial 
substance,  without  denying  the  existence  of  a  creative 
power.  Or,  to  use  the  Indian  illustration,  the  clay  may 
not  be  the  potter. 

Thales  is  said  to  have  predicted  the  solar  eclipse  which 
terminated  a  battle  between  the  Medes  and  Lydians,  but 
it  has  been  suggestively  remarked  that  it  is  not  stated  that 
he  predicted  the  day  on  which  it  should  occur,  other  doctrines 
He  had  an  idea  that  warmth  originates  from  or  of  Tbaies. 
is  nourished  by  humidity,  and  that  even  the  sun  and  stars 
derived  their  aliment  out  of  Ihe  sea  at  the  time  of  their 
rising  and  setting.  Indeed,  he  regarded  them  as  living 
beings;  obtaining  an  argument  from  the  phenomena  of 
amber  and  the  magnet,  supposed  by  him  to  possess  a  living 
soul,  because  they  have  a  moving  force.  Moreover,  he 
taught  that  the  whole  world  is  an  insouled  thing,  and  that 
it  is  full  of  daemons.  Thales  had,  therefore,  not  completely 
passed  out  of  the  stage  of  sorcery. 

His  system  obtained  importance  not  only  from  its  own 
plausibility,  but  because  it  was  introduced  under  favour- 
able auspices  and  at  a  favourable  time.  It  came  into  Asia 
Minor  as  a  portion  of  the  wisdom  of  Egypt,  and  therefore 
with  a  prestige  sufficient  to  assure  for  it  an  attentive  re- 
ception. But  this  would  have  been  of  little  avail  had  not 
the  mental  culture  of  Ionia  been  advanced  to  a  degree 
suitable  for  offering  to  it  conditions  of  development. 

VOL.  I.— 6 


38  GEEEK  AGE  OF   INQUIRY.  [CH.  IV. 

Under  such  circumstances  the  Egyptian  dogma  formed  the 
starting-point  for  a  special  method  of  philosophizing. 

The  manner  in  which  that  development  took  place 
illustrates  the  vigour  of  the  Grecian  niind.  In  Egypt  a 
They  const!-  doctrine  might  exist  for  thousands  of  years,  pro- 
tute  the  stun-  tected  by  its  mere  antiquity  from  controversy 

ing-pomlof  J  .  j    i  •    i         -,i      ,1 

Ionian  phiio-  or  even  examination,  and  hence  sink  with  the 
«°phy.  lapse  of  time  into  an  ineffectual  and  lifeless 

state;  but  the  same  doctrine  brought  into  a  young  com- 
munity full  of  activity  would  quickly  be  made  productive 
and  yield  new  results.  As  seeds  taken  from  the  coffins  of 
mummies,  wherein  they  have  been  shut  up  for  thousands 
of  years,  when  placed  under  circumstances  favourable  for 
development  in  a  rich  soil,  and  supplied  with  moisture, 
have  forthwith,  even  in  our  own  times,  germinated,  borne 
flowers,  and  matured  new  seeds,  so  the  rude  philosophy  of 
Thales  passed  through  a  like  development.  Its  tendency  is 
shown  in  the  attempt  it  at  once  made  to  describe  the  universe, 
even  before  the  parts  thereof  had  been  determined. 

But  it  is  not  alone  the  water  or  ocean  that  seems  to  be 
infinite,  and  capable  of  furnishing  a  supply  for  the  origin 
of  all  other  things.  The  air,  also,  appears  to  reach  as  far 
as  the  stars.  On  it,  as  Anaximenes  of  Miletus  remarks, 
"  the  very  earth  itself  floats  like  a  broad  leaf."  Ac- 
cordingly, this  Ionian,  stimulated  doubtless  by 

Anaximrnos       ,-,         ,    °  £      t.       •  •  j-  -LT_* 

asserts  that  the  hope  of  sharing  in  or  succeeding  to  the 
"rincMe  *"*  celebrity  that  Thales  had  enjoyed  for  a  century, 
proposed  to  substitute  for  water,  as  the  primitive 
source  of  things,  atmospheric  air.  And,  in  truth,  there 
seem  to  be  reasons  for  bestowing  upon  it  such  a  pre- 
eminence. To  those  who  have  not  looked  closely  into  the 
matter,  it  would  appear  that  water  itself  is  generated  from 
it,  as  when  clouds  are  formed,  and  from  them  rain-drops, 
and  springs,  and  fountains,  and  rivers,  and  even  the  sea. 
He  also  attributes  infinity  to  it,  a  dogma  scarcely  requiting 
any  exercise  of  the  imagination,  but  being  rather  the 
expression  of  an  ostensible  fact ;  for  who,  when  he  looks 
upward,  can  discern  the  boundary  of  the  atmosphere, 
it  u  also  the  Anaximenes  also  held  that  even  the  human  soul 
•°ul-  itself  is  nothing  but  air,  since  life  consists  in 

inhaling   and   exhaling    it,   and   ceases   as  soon  as  that 


CI1.  IV.  J  OREEK  AGE  OF  INQUIRY.  99 

process  stops.  He  taught  also  that  warmth  and  cold  arise 
from  mere  rarefaction  and  condensation,  and  gave  as  a 
proof  the  fact  that  when  we  breathe  with  the  lips  drawn 
together  the  air  is  cold,  but  it  becomes  warm  when  we 
breathe  through  the  widely-opened  mouth.  Hence  he 
concluded  that,  with  a  sufficient  rarefaction,  air  might 
turn  into  fire,  and  that  this  probably  was  the  origin  of  the 
sun  and  stars,  blazing  comets,  and  other  meteors ;  but  if  by 
chance  it  should  undergo  condensation,  it  would  turn  into 
wind  and  clouds,  or,  if  that  operation  should  be  still  more 
increased,  into  water,  snow,  hail,  and,  at  last,  even  into 
earth  itself.  A.nd  since  it  is  seen  from  the  results  of 
breathing  that  the  air  is  a  life-giving  principle  to  man, 
nay,  even  is  actually  his  soul,  it  would  appear  to  The  ^T  is 
be  a  just  inference  that  the  infinite  air  is  God  God- 
and  that  the  gods  and  goddesses  have  sprung  from  it. 

Such  was  the  philosophy  of  Anaximenes.  It  was  the 
beginning  of  that  stimulation  of  activity  by  rival  schools 
which  played  so  distinguished  a  part  in  the  Greek  intel- 
lectual movement.  Its  superiority  over  the  doctrine  of 
Thales  evidently  consists  in  this,  that  it  not  only  assigns 
a  primitive  substance,  but  even  undertakes  to  show  by 
observation  and  experiment  how  others  arise  from  it,  and 
transformations  occur.  As  to  the  discovery  of  the  obliquity 
of  the  ecliptic  by  the  aid  of  a  gnomon  attributed  to  Anaxi- 
menes, it  was  merely  a  boast  of  his  vainglorious  country- 
men, and  altogether  beyond  the  scientific  grasp  of  one 
who  had  no  more  exact  idea  of  the  nature  of  the  earth 
than  that  it  was  "  like  a  broad  leaf  floating  in  the  air." 

The  doctrines  of  Anaximenes  received  a  very  important 
development  in  the  hands  of  Diogenes  of  Apollonia,  who 
asserted  that  all  things  originate  from  one  essence,  which, 
undergoing  continual  changes,  becoming  different  at  dif- 
ferent times,  turns  back  again  to  the  same  state.  Ho 
regarded  the  entire  world  as  a  living  being,  spon- 

i     •  ' • — a— i T •" — "j.     if          j    Diogenes 

taneously  evolving  ana  transforming  itself,  and  asserts  that 
agreed  with  Anaximenes  that  the  soul  of  man  ajr  .is  the  F°ul 

•  -i  •          i_  •  i         j.i  i       f   .LI        of  the  world. 

is  nothing  but  air,  as  is  also  the  soul  of  the 
world.     From  this  it  follows  that  the  air  must  be  eternal, 
imperishable,  and  endowed  with  consciousness.    "  It  knows 
much  ;  for  without  reason  it  would  be  impossible  for  all  to 


100  GREEK  AGE  OF   INQUIRY.  [CH.  IV. 

be  arranged  BO  duly  and  proportionately  as  that  all  should 
maintain  its  fitting  measure,  winter  and  summer,  night 
and  day,  the  rain,  the  wind,  and  fair  weather;  and  what- 
ever object  wo  consider  will  be  found  to  have  been  ordered 
in  the  best  and  most  beautiful  manner  possible."  "  But 
that  which  has  knowledge  is  that  which  men  call  air  ;  it 
is  it  that  regulates  and  governs  all,  and  hence  it  is  the  use 
of  air  to  pervade  all,  and  to  dispose  all,  and  to  be  in  all, 
for  there  is  nothing  that  has  not  part  in  it." 

The  early  cultivator  of  philosophy  emerges  with  diffi- 
Difflcuii  •  «>f  culty  from  fetichism.  The  harmony  observed 
rising  above  among  the  parts  of  the  world  is  easily  explained 
tichism.  on  j  j^  hypothesis  of  a  spiritual  principle  residing 
in  things,  and  arranging  them  by  its  intelligent  volition. 
It  is  not  at  once  that  he  rises  to  the  conception  that  all 
this  beauty  and  harmony  are  due  to  the  operation  of  law. 
We  are  so  prone  to  judge  of  the  process  of  external  things 
from  the  modes  of  our  own  personal  experience,  our  acts 
being  determined  by  the  exercise  of  our  wills,  that  it  is 
with  difficulty  we  disentangle  ourselves  from  such  notions 
in  the  explanation  of  natural  phenomena.  Fetichism  may 
be  observed  in  the  infancy  of  many  of  the  natural  sciences. 
Thus  the  electrical  power  of  amber  was  imputed  to  a  soul 
residing  in  that  substance,  a  similar  explanation  being  also 
given  of  the  control  of  the  magnet  over  iron.  The  move- 
ments of  the  planetary  bodies,  Mercury,  Venus,  Mars,  were 
attributed  to  an  intelligent  principle  residing  in  each, 
guiding  and  controlling  the  motions,  and  ordering  all 
things  for  the  best.  It  was  an  epoch  in  the  history  of  the 
human  mind  when  astronomy  set  an  example  to  all  other 
sciences  of  shaking  off  its  fetichism,  and  showing  that 
Astronomy  the  intricate  movements  of  the  heavenly  bodice 
and  chemistry  are  all  capable  not  only  of  being  explained, 

have  passed       •,  £        ,    •,  •,      •/•  •,,     -,     ,t 

beyond  th«  but  even  foretold,  it  once  was  admitted  the 
fetich  stage,  existence  of  a  simple,  yet  universal,  invariable, 
and  eternal  law. 

Not  without  difficulty  do  men  perceive  that  there  is  no- 
thing inconsistent  between  invariable  law  and  endlessly 
varying  phenomena,  and  thafitisamoTe  noble  view 
of  the  government  of  this  world  to  impute  its  order  to 
a  penetrating  primitive  wisdom,  which  could  foresee 


CH.  IV.]  GREEK   AGE  OF  INQUIRY.  101 

consequences  throughout  a  future  eternity,  and  provide  for 
them  in  the  original  plan  at  the  outset,  than  to  invoke  the 
perpetual  intervention  of  an  ever-acting  spiritual  agency 
for  the  purpose  of  warding  off  misfortunes  that  might 
happen,  and  setting  things  to  rights.  Chemistry  furnishes 
us  with  a  striking  example — an  example  very  opportune 
in  the  case  we  are  considering — of  the  doctrine  of  Diogenes 
of  Apollonia,  that  the  air  is  actually  a  spiritual  being  ;  for, 
on  the  discovery  of  several  of  the  gases  by  the  earlier  ex- 
perimenters, they  were  not  only  regarded  as  of  a  spiritual 
nature,  but  actually  received  the  name  under  which  they 
pass  to  this  day,  gheist  or  gas,  from  a  belief  that  they  were 
ghosts.  If  a  labourer  descended  into  a  well  and  was  suffo- 
cated, as  if  struck  dead  by  some  invisible  hand  ;  if  a  lamp 
lowered  down  burnt  for  a  few  moments  with  a  lurid  flame, 
and  was  then  extinguished ;  if,  in  a  coal  mine,  when  the 
unwary  workman  exposed  a  light,  on  a  sudden  the  place 
was  filled  with  flashing  flames  and  thundering  explosions, 
tearing  down  the  rocks  and  destroying  every  living  thing 
in  the  way,  often,  too,  without  leaving  on  the  dead  any 
marks  of  violence ;  what  better  explanation  could  be  given 
of  such  catastrophes  than  to  impute  them  to  some  super- 
natural agent  ?  Nor  was  there  any  want,  in  those  times, 
of  well-authenticated  stories  of  unearthly  faces  and  forms 
seen  in  such  solitudes. 

The  modification  made  by  Diogenes  in  the  theory  of 
Anaximenes,  by  converting  it  from  a  physical  origin  of 
into  a  psychological  system,  is  important,  as  psychology. 
marking  the  beginning  of  the  special  philsosophy  of 
Greece.  The  investigation,  of  the  intellectual  develop- 
ment of  the  universe  led  the  (i  reeks  to  the  sttidy  of  the 
intellect  itself.  In  his  special  doctrine,  Diogenes  imputed 
the  changeability  of  the  air  to  its  mobility ;  a  property  in 
which  he  thought  it  excelled  all  other  substances,  because 
it  is  among  the  rarest  or  thinnest  of  the  elements.  It  is, 
however,  said  by  some,  who  are  disposed  to  transcen- 
dentalize  his  doctrine,  that  he  did  not  mean  the  common 
atmospheric  air,  but  something  more  attenuated  and  warm  ; 
and  since,  in  its  purest  state,  it  constitutes  the  most  perfect 
intellect,  inferior  degrees  of  reason  must  be  owing  to 
an  increase  of  its  density  and  moisture.  Upon  such  a 


102  GREEK  AGE  OF  INQUIRY.  [CH.  IV. 

principle,  the  whole  earth  is  animated  by  the  breath  of  life ; 
the  souls  of  brutes,  which  differ  from  one  another  so 
much  in  intelligence,  are  only  air  in  its  various  conditions 
of  moisture  and  warmth.  He  explained  the  production  of 
the  world  through  condensation  of  the  earth  from  air  by 
cold,  the  warmth  rising  upward  and  forming  the  sun  ;  in 
the  stars  he  thought  he  recognized  the  respiratory  organs 
of  the  world.  From  the  preponderance  of  moist  air  in  the 
constitution  of  brutes,  he  inferred  that  they  are  like  the 
insane,  incapable  of  thought,  for  thickness  of  the  air 
impedes  respiration,  and  therefore  quick  apprehension. 
From  the  fact  that  plants  have  no  cavities  wherein  to 
receive  the  air,  and  are  altogether  unintelligent,  he  was 
led  to  the  principle  that  the  thinking  power  of  man  arises 
from  the  flowing  of  that  substance  throughout  the  body  in 
the  blood.  He  also  explained  the  superior  intelligence  of 
men  from  their  breathing  a  purer  air  than  the  beasts, 
which  carry  their  nostrils  near  the  ground.  In  these 
crude  and  puerile  speculations  we  have  the  beginning  of 
mental  philosophy. 

I  cannot  dismiss  the  system  of  the  Apollonian  without 
setting  in  contrast  with  it  the  discoveries  of 
co^erlea'aTio  modern  science  respecting  the  relations  of  the 
the  relations  air_  Toward  the  world  of  life  it  stands  in  a  posi- 
tion of  wonderful  interest.  Decomposed  into  its 
constituents  by  the  skill  of  chemistry,  it  is  no  longer 
looked  upon  as  a  homogeneous  body ;  its  ingredients  have 
not  only  been  separated,  but  the  functions  they  discharge 
Have  been  ascertained.  From  one  of  these,  carbonic  acid, 
all  the  various  forms  of  plants  arise  ;  that  substance  being 
decomposed  by  the  rays  of  the  sun,  and  furnishing  to 
vegetables  carbon,  their  chief  solid  ingredient.  All  those 
beautifully  diversified  organic  productions,  from  the 
mosses  of  the  icy  regions  to  the  palms  characteristic  of 
the  landscapes  of  the  tropics — all  those  we  cast  away  as 
worthless  weeds,  and  those  for  the  obtaining  of  which  we 
expend  the  sweat  of  our  brow — all,  without  any  exception, 
.  are  obtained  from  the  atmosphere  by  the  in- 

Inter-depend-       _  e    A-I  A      j       •  -iiii 

cnce  of  animal*  fluence  oi  the  sun.  And  since  without  plants 
and  plants.  ^e  }-fe  Qf  animais  could  not  be  maintained,  they 
constitute  the  means  by  which  the  aerial  material,  vivified, 


CH.  IV.  j  GREEK  AGE   OF  INQUIRY.  103 

as  it  may  be  said,  by  the  rays  of  the  sun,  is  conveyed  even 
into  the  composition  of  man  himself.  As  food,  they  servo 
to  repair  the  waste  of  the  body  necessarily  occasioned  in 
the  acts  of  moving  and  thinking.  For  a  time,  therefore, 
these  ingredients,  once  a  part  of  the  structure  of  plants, 
enter  as  essential  constituents  in  the  structure  of  animals. 
Yet  it  is  only  in  a  momentary  way,  for  the  essential  con- 
dition of  animal  activity  is  that  there  shall  be  unceasing 
interstitial  death  ;  not  a  finger  can  be  lifted  without  tho 
waste  of  muscular  material ;  not  a  thought  arise  without 
the  destruction  of  cerebral  substance.  From  the  animal 
system  the  products  of  decay  are  forthwith  removed,  oi'ten 
by  mechanisms  of  the  most  exquisite  construction ;  but 
their  uses  are  not  ended,  for  sooner  or  later  they  find  their 
way  back  again  into  the  air,  and  again  serve  for  the  origi- 
nation of  plants.  It  is  needless  to  trace  these  changes  in 
all  their  details ;  the  same  order  or  cycle  of  progress  holds 
good  for  the  water,  the  ammonia ;  they  pass  from  the 
inorganic  to  the  living  state,  and  back  to  the  inorganic 
again;  now  the  same  particle  is  found  in  the  air  next 
aiding  in  the  composition  of  a  plant,  then  in  the  body  of  an 
animal,  and  back  in  the  air  once  more.  In  this  perpetual 
revolution  material  particles  run,  the  dominating  influence 
determining  and  controlling  their  movement  being  in 
that  great  centre  of  our  system,  the  sun.  From  Agency  of  tiw 
him,  in  the  summer  days,  plants  receive,  and,  as  8un- 
it  were,  store  up  that  warmth  which,  at  a  subsequent  time, 
is  to  reappear  in  the  glow  of  health  of  man,  or  to  be  re- 
kindled in  the  blush  of  shame,  or  to  consume  in  the  burn- 
ing fever.  Nor  is  there  any  limit  of  time.  The  heat  we 
derive  from  the  combustion  of  stubble  came  from  the  sun 
as  it  were  only  yesterday ;  but  that  with  which  wo 
moderate  the  rigour  of  winter  when  we  burn  anthracite  or 
bituminous  coal  was  also  derived  from  the  same  source  in 
the  ultra-tropical  climate  of  the  secondary  times,  perhaps  a 
thousand  centuries  ago. 

In  such  perpetually  recurring  cycles  are  the  movements 
of  material  things  accomplished,  and  all  takes  place  under 
the  dominion  of  invariable  law.  The  air  is  the  source 
whence  all  organisms  have  come ;  it  is  the  receptacle  to 
which  they  all  return.  Its  parts  are  awakened  into  life, 


/04  GREEK  AGE  OF  INQUIRY.  [CH.  IV 

not  by  the  influence  of  any  terrestrial  agency  or  principle 
•concealed  in  itself,  as  Diogenes  supposed,  but  by  a  star 
which  is  ninety  millions  of  miles  distant,  the  source, 
direct  or  indirect,  of  every  terrestrial  movement,  and  the 
dispenser  of  light  and  life. 

To  Thales  and  Diogenes,  whose  primordial  elements 
were  water  and  air  respectively,  we  must  add  Heraclitus 

of  Ephesus,  who  maintained  that  the  first 
rertsu'aTfire  principle  is  fire.  Ho  illustrated  the  tendency 
is  the  first  which  Greek  philosophy  had  already  assumed 

of  opposition  to  Polytheism  and  the  idolatrous 
practices  of  the  age.  It  is  said  that  in  his  work,  ethical, 
political,  physical,  and  theological  subjects  were  so  con- 
fused, and  so  great  was  the  difficulty  of  understanding  his 
meaning,  that  he  obtained  the  surname  of  "  the  Obscure." 
In  this  respect  he  has  had  among  modern  metaphysicians 
many  successors.  He  founds  his  system,  however,  upon 
the  simple  axiom  that  "  all  is  convertible  into  fire,  and 
fire  into  all."  Perhaps  by  the  term  fire  he  understood 
what  is  at  present  meant  by  heat,  for  he  expressly  says  that 
he  does  not  mean  flame,  but  something  merely  dry  and 
warm.  He  considered  that  this  principle  is  in  a  state  of 

perpetual  activity,  forming  and  absorbing  every 

The  fictitious     •     i-     •  i       i    ,1  •  TT  14   A  11    •  / 

permanence  individual  thing.  He  says,  "  All  is,  and  is  not ; 
of  successive  for  though  it  does  in  truth  come  into  being,  yet 
it  forthwith  ceases  to  be."  "  No  one  has  ever  been 
twice  on  the  same  stream,  for  different  waters  are  constantly 
flowing  down.  It  dissipates  its  waters  and  gathers  them 
again ;  it  approaches  and  recedes,  overflows  and  fails."  And 
to  teach  us  that  we  ourselves  are  changing  and  have 
changed,  he  says,  "  On  the  same  stream  we  embark  and 
embark  not,  we  are  and  we  are  not."  By  such  illustrations 
he  implies  that  life  is  only  an  unceasing  motion,  and  wo 
cannot  fail  to  remark  that  the  Greek  turn  of  thought  is  fast 
following  that  of  the  Hindu. 

But  Heraclitus  totally  fails  to  free  himself  from  local 
conceptions.  Ho  speaks  of  the  motion  of  the  primordial 
principle  in  the  upward  and  downward  directions,  in  the 
higher  and  lower  regions.  He  says  that  the  chief  accu- 
mulation thereof  is  above,  and  the  chief  deficiency  below  : 
and  hence  he  regards  the  soul  of  a  man  as  a  portion  of 


CH.  IV.]  GREEK  AGE  OF   INQUIRY.  105 

fire  migrated  from  heaven.  He  carries  his  ideas  of  the 
transitory  nature  of  all  phenomena  to  their  last  conse- 
quences, and  illustrates  the  noble  doctrine  that  all  which 
appears  to  us  to  be  permanent  is  only  a  regulated  and 
self-renewing  concurrence  of  similar  and  opposite  motions 
by  such  extravagances  as  that  the  sun  is  daily  destroyed 
and  renewed. 

In  the  midst  of  many  wild  physical  statements  many 
true  axioms  are  delivered.  "  All  is  ordered  by  reason  and 
intelligence,  though  all  is  subject  to  Fate." 

AT  '     -U  •       j        I,    A    4/u  l,'-  Phvsical  and 

Already  he  perceived  what  the  metaphysicians  physiological 
of  our  own  times  are  illustrating,  that  "  man's  ?.octri"'!s  of 

.     ,  ,  j.    •      i  i     i         «•  -i      Herat  htus. 

mind  can  produce  no  certain  knowledge  Irom  its 
own  interior  resources  alone."  He  regarded  the  organs  of 
sense  as  being  the  channels  through  which  the  outer  life 
of  the  world,  and  therewith  truth,  enters  into  the  mind, 
and  that  in  sleep,  when  the  organs  of  sense  are  closed,  we 
are  shut  out  from  all  communion  with  the  surrounding 
universal  spirit.  In  his  view  every  thing  is  animated  and 
insouled,  but  to  different  degrees,  organic  objects  being 
most  completely  or  perfectly  so.  His  astronomy  may  be 
anticipated  from  what  has  been  said  respecting  the  sun, 
which  he  moreover  regarded  as  being  scarcely  more  than  a 
foot  in  diameter,  and,  like  all  other  celestial  objects,  a 
mere  meteor.  His  moral  system  was  altogether  based  upon 
the  physical,  the  fundamental  dogma  being  the  excellence 
of  fire.  Thus  he  accounted  for  the  imbecility  of  the 
drunkard  by  his  having  a  moist  soul,  and  drew  the 
inference  that  a  warm  or  dry  soul  is  the  wisest  and  best ; 
with  justifiable  patriotism  asserting  that  the  noblest  souls 
must  belong  to  a  climate  that  is  dry,  intending  thereby  to 
indicate  that  Greece  is  man's  fittest  and  truest  country. 
There  can  be  no  doubt  that  in  Heraclitus  there  is  a  strong 
tendency  to  the  doctrine  of  a  soul  of  the  world.  If  the 
divinity  is  undistinguishable  from  heat,  whither  can  we  go 
to  escape  its  influences  ?  And  in  the  restless  activity  and 
incessant  changes  it  produces  in  every  thing  within  our 
reach,  do  we  not  recognize  the  tokens  of  the  illimitable 
and  unshackled  ? 

I  have  lingered  on  the  chief  features  of  the  early  Greek 
philosophy  as  exhibited  in  the  phvsical  school  of  Ionia. 

6* 


106  GREEK   AGE  OF  INQUIRY.  [CH.  IV. 


They  servo  to  impress  upon  us  its  intrinsic  imperfection. 
Tt  is  a  mixture  of  the  physical,  metaphysical,  and  mystical 
The  puerility  which,  upon  the  \vholo,  has  no  other  value  than 
uf  Ionian  this,  that  it  shows  how  feeble  were  the  beginnings 
of  our  knowledge — that  we  commenced  with 
the  importation  of  a  few  vulgar  errors  from  Egypt.  In 
presence  of  the  utilitarian  philosophy  of  that  country  and 
the  theology  of  India,  how  vain  and  even  childish  are 
these  germs  of  science  in  Greece  !  Yet  this  very  imperfec- 
tion is  not  without  its  use,  since  it  warns  us  of  the  inferior 
position  in  which  we  stand  as  respects  the  time  of  our 
civilization  when  compared  with  those  ancient  states,  and 
teaches  us  to  reject  the  assertion  which  so  many  European 
scholars  have  wearied  themselves  in  establishing,  that 
Greece  led  the  way  to  all  human  knowledge  of  any  value. 
Above  all,  it  impresses  upon  us  more  appropriate,  because 
more  humble  views  of  our  present  attainments  and  position, 
ami  gives  us  to  understand  that  other  races  of  men  not 
only  preceded  us  in  intellectual  culture,  but  have  equal  led. 
and  perhaps  surpassed  every  thing  that  we  have  yet  done 
in  mental  philosophy. 

Of  the  other  founders  of  Ionic  sects  it  may  be  observed 
that,  though  they  gave  to  their  doctrines  different  forms, 
the  method  of  reasoning  was  essentially  the  same  in  them 
all.  Of  this  a  better  illustration  could  not  be  given  than 
in  the  philosophy  of  Anaximander  of  Miletus,  who  was 
....  contemporary  with  Thales.  He  started  with  the 

Anaximandcr's  J  .  . 

doctrine  of  the  postulate  that  things  arose  by  separation  from 
a  universal  mixture  of  all :  his  primordial  prin- 
ciple was  therefore  chaos,  though  he  veiled  it  in  the  meta- 
physically obscure  designation  "  The  Infinite."  The  want 
of  precision  in  this  respect  gave  rise  to  much  difference  of 
opinion  as  to  his  tenets.  To  his  chaos  he  imputed  an 
internal  energy,  by  which  its  parts  spontaneously  sepa- 
rated from  each  other  ;  to  those  parts  he  imputed  absolute 
unchangeability.  He  taught  that  the  earth  is  of  a  cylin- 
drical form,  its  base  being  one-third  of  its  altitude ;  it 
is  retained  in  the  centre  of  the  world  by  the  air  in  an 
equality  of  distance  from  all  the  boundaries  of  the  universe  ; 
that  the  fixed  stars  and  planets  revolved  round  it,  each 
being  fastened  to  a  crystalline  ring ;  and  beyond  them,  in 


CH.  IV. J  GREEK   AGE   OF    INQUIRY.  10? 

like  manner,  1he  moon,  and,  still  farther  off,  the  sun.  He 
conceived  of  an  opposition  between  the  central  origin  of  cos- 
and  circumferential  regions,  the  former  being  m°sony. 
naturally  cold,  and  the  latter  hot ;  indeed,  in  his  opinion, 
the  settling  of  the  cold  parts  to  the  centre,  and  the 
ascending  of  the  hot,  gave  origin,  respectively,  to  the 
formation  of  the  earth  arfd  shining  celestial  bodies,  the 
latter  first  existing  as  a  complete  shell  or  sphere,  which, 
undergoing  destruction,  broke  up  into  stars.  Already  we 
perceive  the  tendency  of  Greek  philosophy  to  shape  itself 
into  systems  of  cosmogony,  founded  upon  the  disturbance 
of  the  chaotic  matter  by  heat  and  cold.  Kay,  more, 
Anaximander  explained  the  origin  of  living  origin  of 
creatures  on  like  principles,  for  the  sun's  heat,  biol°ey- 
acting  upon  the  primal  miry  earth,  produced  filmy 
bladders  or  bubbles,  and  these,  becoming  surrounded  with 
a  prickly  rind,  at  length  burst  open,  and,  as  from  an  egg, 
animals  came  forth.  At  first  they  were  ill-formed  and 
imperfect,  but  subsequently  elaborated  and  developed.  As 
to  man,  so  far  from  being  produced  in  his  perfect  shape, 
he  was  ejected  as  a  fish,  and  under  that  form  continued  in 
the  muddy  water  until  he  was  capable  of  supporting 
himself  on  dry  land.  Besides  "  the  Infinite  "  being  thus 
the  cause  of  generation,  it  was  also  the  cause  of  destruction  : 
"  things  must  all  return  whence  they  came,  according  to 
destiny,  for  they  must  all,  in  order  of  time,  undergo  due 
penalties  and  expiations  of  wrong-doing."  This  expression 
obviously  contains  a  moral  consideration,  and  is  an  exempli- 
fication of  the  commencing  feeble  interconnection  between 
physical  and  moral  philosophy. 

As  to  the  more  solid  discoveries  attributed  to  this  philo- 
sopher, we  may  dispose  of  them  in  the  same  manner  that 
we  have  dealt  with  the  like  facts  in  the  biographies  of  his 
predecessors — they  are  idle  inventions  of  his  vainglorious 
countrymen.  That  he  was  the  first  to  make  maps  is 
scarcely  consistent  with  the  well-known  fact  that  the 
Egyptians  had  cultivated  geometry  for  that  express 
purpose  thirty  centuries  before  he  was  born.  As  to  his 
inventing  sun-dials,  the  shadow  had  gone  back  on  that  of 
Ahaz  a  long  time  before.  In  reality,  the  sun-dial  was  a 
very  ancient  Oriental  invention.  And  as  to  his  being  the 


108  CREEK   AGE   OF  INQUIBY.  [cil.  IV. 

first  to  make  an  exact  calculation  of  the  size  and  distance  of 
tho  heavenly  bodies,  it  need  only  be  remarked  that  those 
who  have  so  greatly  extolled  his  labours  must  have  over- 
looked how  incompatible  such  discoveries  are  with  a 
system  which  assumes  that  the  earth  is  cylindrical  in 
shape,  and  kept  in  the  midst  of  the  heavens  by  the  atmo- 
sphere ;  that  the  sun  is  farther  off  than  the  fixed  stars ; 
and  that  each  of  the  heavenly  bodies  is  made  to  revolve 
by  means  of  a  crystalline  wheel. 

The  philosopher  whose  views  we  have  next  to  consider 
is  Anaxagoras  of  Clazomene,  the  friend  and  master  of 
Pericles,  Euripides,  and  Socrates.  Like  several  of  his 
predecessors,  he  had  visited  Egypt.  Among  his  disciples 
were  numbered  some  of  the  most  eminent  men  of  those 
times. 

The  fundamental  principle  of  his  philosophy  was  the 
recognition  of  the  unchangeability  of  the  universe  as  a 
Anaxagoras  whole,  the  variety  of  forms  that  we  see  being 
teaches  the  produced  by  new  arrangements  of  its  constituent 

unclmnge-  ni  -i       i    •         •       i     j  r-  j.1 

ability  of  <he  parts.  Such  a  doctrine  includes,  ot  course,  tho 
universe.  i<jea  of  tne  eternity  of  matter.  Anaxagoras  says, 
"  Wrongly  do  the  Greeks  suppose  that  aught  begins  or 
ceases  to  be,  for  nothing  comes  into  being  or  is  destroyed, 
but  all  is  an  aggregation  or  secretion  of  pre-existent  things, 
so  that  all  becoming  might  more  correctly  be  called  be- 
coming-mixed, and  all  corruption  becoming-separate."  In 
such  a  statement  we  cannot  fail  to  remark  that  the  Greek 
is  fast  passing  into  the  track  of  the  Egyptian  and  tho 
Hindu.  In  some  respects  his  views  recall  those  of  the 
chaos  of  Anaximander,  as  when  he  says,  "  Together  were 
all  things  infinite  in  number  and  smallness  ;  nothing  was 
distinguishable.  Before  they  were  sorted,  while  all  was 
The  primal  together,  there  was  no  quality  noticeable."  To 
intellect.  the  first  moving  force  which  arranged  the  pai-ts 
of  things  out  of  the  chaos,  he  gave  the  designation  of  "  the 
Intellect,"  rejecting  Fate  as  an  empty  name,  and  imputing 
all  things  to  Reason.  He  made  no  distinction  between 
the  Soul  and  Intellect.  His  tenets  evidently  include  a 
dualism  indicated  by  the  moving  force  and  the  moved 
mass,  an  opposition  between  the  corporeal  and  mental. 
This  indicated  that  for  philosophy  there  are  two  separate 


CH.  IV.~|  GREEK   AGE  OF  INQUIRY.  109 

routes,  the  physical  and  intellectual.  While  Eeason  is  thus 
the  prime  mover  in  his  philosophy,  he  likewise  employed 
many  subordinate  agents  in  the  government  of  things — 
for  instance,  air,  water,  and  fire,  being  evidently  unable  to 
explain  the  state  of  nature  in  a  satisfactory  way  by  the 
operation  of  the  Intellect  alone.  We  recognize  cosmogony  oi 
in  the  details  of  his  system  ideas  derived  from  Anaxagoras. 
former  ones,  such  as  the  settling  of  the  cold  and  dense 
below,  and  the  lising  of  the  warm  and  light  above.  In 
the  beginning  the  action  of  Intellect  was  only  partial ; 
that  which  was  primarily  moved  was  only  imperfectly 
sorted,  and  contained  in  itself  the  capability  of  many 
separations.  From  this  point  his  system  became  a  cos- 
mogony, showing  how  the  elements  and  fogs,  stones, 
stars,  and  the  sea,  were  produced.  These  explanations,  as 
might  be  anticipated,  have  no  exactness.  Among  his 
primary  elements  are  many  incongruous  things,  such  as 
cold,  colour,  fire,  gold,  lead,  corn,  marrow,  blood,  &c.  This 
doctrine  implied  that  in  compound  things  there  was  not  a 
formation,  but  an  arrangement.  It  required,  therefore, 
many  elements  instead  of  a  single  one.  Flesh  is  made  of 
fleshy  particles,  bones  of  bony,  gold  of  golden,  lead  of 
leaden,  wood  of  wooden,  &c.  These  analogous  constituents 
are  homoeomeriae.  Of  an  infinite  number  of  kinds,  they 
composed  the  infinite  all,  which  is  a  mixture  of  them. 
From  such  conditions  Anaxagoras  proves  that  all  the  parts 
of  an  animal  body  pre-exist  in  the  food,  and  are  merely  col- 
lected therefrom.  As  to  the  phenomena  of  life,  he  explains 
it  on  his  doctrine  of  dualism  between  mind  and  matter ; 
he  teaches  that  sleep  is  produced  by  the  reaction  of  the 
latter  on  the  former.  Even  plants  he  regards  as  only 
rooted  animals,  motionless,  but  having  sensations  and 
desires ;  he  imputes  the  superiority  of  man  to  the  mere 
fact  of  his  having  hands.  He  explains  our  mental  percep- 
tions upon  the  hypothesis  that  we  have  naturally  within 
us  the  contraries  of  all  the  qualities  of  external  things ; 
and  that,  when  we  consider  an  object,  we  become  aware 
of  the  preponderance  of  those  qualities  in  our  mind  which 
are  deficient  in  it.  Hence  all  sensation  is  attended  with 
pain.  His  doctrine  of  the  production  of  animals  was 
founded  on  the  action  of  the  sunlight  on  the  miry  earth. 


110  GREEK    AGE  OF   INQUIRY.  [CH.  IV. 

The  earth  he  places  in  the  centre  of  the  world,  whither  it 
•was  carried  by  a  whirlwind,  the  pole  being  originally  in 
the  zenith  ;  but,  when  animals  issued  from  the  mud.  its 
position  was  changed  by  the  Intellect,  so  that  there  might 
be  suitable  climates.  In  some  particulars  his  crude  guesses 
present  amusing  anticipations  of  subsequent  discoveries. 
Thus  he  maintained  that  the  moon  has  mountains,  and 
valleys  like  the  earth  ;  that  there  have  been  grand  epochs 
in  the  history  of  our  globe,  in  which  it  has  been  suc- 
cessively modified  by  fire  and  water :  that  the  hills  of 
Lampsacus  would  one  day  be  under  the  sea,  if  time  did 
not  too  soon  fail. 

As  to  the  nature  of  human  knowledge,  Ahaxagoras,  as- 
Poubts  serted  that  by  the  Intellect  alone  do  we  become 
whether  we  acquainted  with  the  truth,  the  senses  being  alto- 
terion'of  °r  gether  untrustworthy.  He  illustrated  this  by 
tnitb.  putting  a  drop  of  coloured  liquid  into  a  quantity 

of  clear  water,  the  eye  being  unable  to  recognise  any  change. 
Upon  such  principles  also  he  asserted  that  snow  is  not 
white,  but  black,  since  it  is  composed  of  water,  of  which 
the  colour  is  black ;  and  hence  he  drew  suCh  conclusions 
as  that "  things  are  to  each  man  according  as  they  seem  to 
him."  It  was  doubtless  the  recognition  of  the  unreliability 
of  the  senses  that  extorted  from  him  the  well-known  com- 
plaint :  "  Nothing  can  be  known  ;  nothing  can  be  learned  ; 
nothing  can  be  certain;  seme  is  limited  ;  intellect  is  weak  ; 
life  is  short." 

The  biography  of  Anaxagoras  is  not  without  interest. 
Born  in  affluence,  he  devoted  all  his  means  to  philosophy, 
and  in  his  old  age  encountered  poverty  and  want.  He 
was  accused  by  the  superstitious  Athenian  populace  of 
Atheism  and  impiety  to  the  gods,  since  he  asserted  that 
the  sun  and  moon  consist  of  earth  and  stone,  and  that  the 
so-called  divine  miracles  of  the  times  were  nothing  more 
than  common  natural  effects.  For  these  reasons,  and  also 
because  of  the  Magianism  of  his  doctrine — for  he  taught 
the  antagonism  of  mind  and  matter,  a  dogma  of  the 
Anaxap.rasis  detested  Persians — he  was  thrown  into  prison, 
persecuted,  condemned  to  death,  and  barely  escaped  through 
the  influence  of  Pericles.  He  fled  to  Lampsacus,  where  he 
ended  his  days  in  exile.  His  vainglorious  countrymen, 


CH.  rv.j  GRKEK  AGE  OF   INQUIRY.  Ill 

however,  conferred  honour  upon  his  memory  in  their 
customary  exaggerated  way,  boasting  that  he  was  the  first 
to  explain  the  phases  of  the  moon,  the  nature  of  solar  and 
lunar  eclipses,  that  he  had  the  power  of  foretelling  future 
events,  and  had  even  predicted  the  fall  of  a  meteoric 
stone. 

From  the  biography  of  Anaxagoras,  as  well  as  of  several 
of  his  contemporaries  and  successors,  we  may  learn  that  a 
popular  opposition  was  springing  up  against  philosophy, 
not  limited  to  a  mere  social  protest,  but  carried  out  into 
political  injustice.  The  antagonism  between  learning  and 
Polytheism  was  becoming  every  day  more  distinct.  Of 
the  philosophers,  some  were  obliged  to  flee  into  exile,  some 
suffered  death.  The  natural  result  of  such  a  state  of 
things  was  to  force  them  to  practise  concealment  and 
mystification,  as  is  strikingly  shown  in  the  history  of  the 
Pythagoreans. 

Of  Pythagoras,  the  founder  of  this  sect,  but  little  is 
known  with  certainty ;  even  the  date  of  his  Pythagoras, 
birth  is  contested.  Probably  he  was  born  at  biography  of. 
Samos  about  n.c.  540.  If  we  were  not  expressly  told  so, 
we  should  recognize  from  his  doctrines  that  he  had  been  in 
Egypt  and  India.  Some  eminent  scholars,  who  desire  on 
all  occasions  to  magnify  the  learning  of  ancient  Europe, 
depreciate  as  far  as  they  can  the  universal  testimony  of 
antiquity  that  such  was  the  origin  of  the  knowledge  of 
Pythagoras,  asserting  that  the  constitution  of  the  Egyptian 
priesthood  rendered  it  impossible  for  a  foreigner  to  become 
initiated.  They  forget  that  the  ancient  system  of  that 
country  had  been  totally  destroyed  in  the  great  revolution 
which  took  ^^e  more  than  a  century  before  those  times. 
If  it  were  not  explicitly  stated  by  the  ancients  that 
Pythagoras  lived  for  twenty-two  years  in  Egypt,  there  is 
sufficient  internal  evidence  in  his  story  to  prove  that  he 
had  been  there  a  long  time.  As  a  connoisseur  can  detect  the 
hand  of  a  master  by  the  style  of  a  picture,  so  one  who  has 
devoted  attention  to  the  old  systems  of  thought  sees,  at  a 
glance,  the  Egyptian  in  the  philosophy  of  Pythagoras. 

He  passed  into  Italy  during  the  reign  of  Tarquin  the 
Proud,  and  settled  at  Crotona,  a  Greek  colonial  city  on  the 
Bay  of  Tarentum.  At  first  he  established  a  school,  but. 


112  GREEK  AGE  OF   INQUIRY.  [CH.  IV. 

favoured  by  local  dissensions,  he  gradually  organized  from 
the  youths  who  availed  themselves  of  his  instructions  a 
secret  political  society.  Already  it  had  passed  into  a 
maxim  among  the  learned  Greeks  that  it  is  not  advanta- 
geous to  communicate  knowledge  too  freely  to  the  people 
a  bitter  experience  in  persecutions  seemed  to  demonstrate 
that  the  maxim  was  founded  on  truth.  The  step  from  a 
secret  philosophical  society  to  a  political  conspiracy  is  but 
short.  Pythagoras  appears  to  have  taken  it.  The  dis- 
ciples who  were  admitted  to  his  scientific  secrets  after  a 
period  of  probation  and  process  of  examination  constituted 
a  ready  instrument  of  intrigue  against  the  state,  the  issue 
of  which,  after  a  time,  appeared  in  the  supplanting  of  the 
ancient  senate  and  the  exaltation  of  Pythagoras  and  his 
club  to  the  administration  of  government.  The  actions  of 
men  in  all  times  are  determined  by  similar  principles ;  and 
as  it  would  be  now  with  such  a  conspiracy,  so  it  was  then  ; 
for,  though  the  Pythagorean  influence  spread  from  Crotona 
to  other  Italian  towns,  an  overwhelming  reaction  soon  set 
in.  the  innovators  were  driven  into  exile,  their  institutions 
destroyed,  and  their  founder  fell  a  victim  to  his  enemies. 

The  organization  attempted  by  the  Pythagoreans  is  an 
exception  to  the  general  policy  of  the  Greeks.  The  philo- 
sophical schools  had  been  merely  points  of  reunion  for 
those  entertaining  similar  opinions  ;  but  in  the  state  they 
can  hardly  be  regarded  as  having  had  any  political 
existence. 

It  is  difficult,  when  the  political  or  religious  feelings  of 
men  have  been  engaged,  to  ascertain  the  truth  of  events  in 
which  they  have  been  concerned  ;  deception,  and  falsehood, 
seem  to  be  licensed.  In  the  midst  of  the  trebles  befalling 
Italy  as  the  consequence  of  these  Pythagorpan  machina- 
tions, it  is  impossible  to  ascertain  facts  with  certainty. 
One  party  exalts  Pythagoras  to  a  superhuijian  state.;  it 
pictures  him  majestic  and  impassive,  clothed  in  robes  of 
white,  with  a  golden  coronet  around  his  brows,  listening 
to  the  music  of  the  spheres,  or  seeking  relaxation  in  the 
more  humble  hymns  of  Homer,  Hesiod,  and  Thales ;  lost 
in  the  contemplation  of  Nature,  or  rapt  in  ecstasy  in  his 
meditations  on  God ;  manifesting  his  descent  from  Apollo 
or  Hermes  by  the  working  of  miracles,  predicting  future 


CH.  IV.]  GREEK  AGE   OF   INQUIRY.  113 

events,  conversing  with  genii  in  the  solitude  of  a  dark 
cavern,  and  even  surpassing  the  wonder  of  speak- 

i,  1       •      j-rc  ,    i  •  •,    His  miracles. 

ing  simultaneously  in  dinerent  tongues,  since  it 
was  established,  by  the  most  indisputable  testimony,  that  he 
had  accomplished  the  prodigy  of  being  present  with  and 
addressing  the  people  in  several  different  places  at  the 
same  time.  It  seems  not  to  have  occurred  to  his  disciples 
that  such  preposterous  assertions  cannot  be  sustained  by 
any  evidence  whatsoever;  and  that  the  stronger  and  clearer 
such  evidence  is,  instead  of  supporting  the  fact  for  which 
it  is  brought  forward,  it  the  more  serves  to  shake  our  con- 
fidence in  the  truth  of  man,  or  impresses  on  us  the  conclu- 
sion that  he  is  easily  lead  to  the  adoption  of  falsehood,  and 
is  readily  deceived  by  imposture. 

By  his  opponents  he  was  denounced  as  a  quack,  or,  at 
the  best,  a  visionary  mystic,  who  had  deluded 

,1  •  ,1       ,  i  •  f  f  His  character. 

the  young  with  the  mummeries  of  a  free- 
masonry ;  had  turned  the  weak-minded  into  shallow  en- 
thusiasts and  grim  ascetics ;  and  as  having  conspired 
against  a  state  which  had  given  him  an  honourable  refuge, 
and  brought  disorder  and  bloodshed  upon  it.  Between 
such  contradictory  statements,  it  is  difficult  to  determine 
how  much  we  should  impute  to  the  philosopher  and  how 
much  to  the  trickster.  In  this  uncertainty,  the  Pythago- 
reans reap  the  fruit  of  one  of  their  favourite  maxims,  "  Not 
unto  all  should  all  be  made  known."  Perhaps  at  the 
bottom  of  these  political  movements  lay  the  hope  of  estab- 
lishing a  central  point  of  union  for  the  numerous  Greek 
colonies  of  Italy,  which,  though  they  were  rich  and  highly 
civilized,  were,  by  reason  of  their  isolation  and  an- 
tagonism, essentially  weak.  Could  they  have  been  united 
in  a  powerful  federation  by  the  aid  of  some  political  or 
religious  bond,  they  might  have  exerted  a  singular  in- 
fluence on  the  rising  fortunes  of  Rome,  and  thereby  on 
humanity. 

The  fundamental  dogma  of  the  Pythagoreans  was  that 
';  number  is  the  essence  or  first  principle  of  Pythagoras 
things."  This  led  them  at  once  to  the  study  ££SwHMh« 
of  the  mysteries  of  figures  and  of  arithmetical  first  principle, 
relations,  and  plunged  them  into  the  wildest  fantasies  when 
it  took  the  absurd  form  that  numbers  are  actually  things. 


114  GREEK   AGE   OF  INQUIRY.  [CH.  I\". 

The  approval  of  the  doctrines  of  Pythagoras  so  generally 
expressed  was  doubtless  very  much  due  to  the  fact  that 
they  supplied  an  intellectual  void.  Those  who  had  been 
in  the  foremost  ranks  of  philosophy  had  come  to  the 
conclusion  that,  as  regard  external  things,  and  even  our- 
selves, we  have  no  criterion  of  truth  ;  but  in  the  properties 
of  numbers  and  their  relations,  such  a  criterion  does 
exist. 

It  would  scarcely  repay  the  reader  to  pursue  this  system 
in  its  details;  a  very  superficial  representation  of  it  is 
all  that  is  necessary  for  our  purpose.  Ir  recognizes  two 
species  of  numbers,  the  odd  and  even ;  and  since  one,  or 
unity,  must  be  at  once  both  odd  and  even,  it  must  be  the 
very  essence  of  number,  and  the  ground  of  all  other 
numbers  :  hence  the  meaning  of  the  Pythagorean  expres- 
sion, "  All  comes  from  one  ;"  which  also  took  form  in  thu 
mystical  allusion,  "  God  embraces  all  and  actuates  all,  and 
is  but  one."  To  the  number  ten  extraordinary  importance 
was  imputed,  since  it  contains  in  itself,  or  arises  from  the 
addition  of,  1,  2,  3,  4 — that  is,  of  even  and  odd  numbers 
together  ;  hence  it  received  the  name  of  the  grand  tetractys, 
because  it  so  contains  the  first  four  numbers.  Some,  how- 
ever, assert  that  that  designation  was  imposed  on  the 
I'ytiiacorpan  number  thirty-six.  To  the  triad  the  Pythagoreans 
pbiiosuphy.  likewise  attached  much  significance,  since  it  hat 
a  beginning,  a  middle,  and  an  end.  To  unity,  or  one.  they 
gave  the  designation  of  the  even-odd,  asserting  that  it 
contained  the  property  both  of  the  even  and  odd,  as  is 
plain  from  the  fact  that  if  one  be  added  to  an  even  number 
it  becomes  odd.  but  if  to  an  odd  number  it  becomes  even. 
They  arranged  the  primary  elements  of  nature  in  a  table 
of  ten  contraries,  of  which  the  odd  and  even  are  one,  and 
light  and  darkness  another.  They  said  that  "  the  nature 
and  energy  of  number  may  be  traced  not  only  in  divine 
and  divmonish  things,  but  in  human  works  and  words 
everywhere,  and  in  all  works  of  art  and  in  music."  They 
even  linked  their  arithmetical  views  to  morality,  through 
the  observation  that  numbers  never  lie ;  that  they  are 
hostile  to  falsehood  ;  and  that,  therefore,  truth  belongs  to 
their  family  :  their  fanciful  speculations  led  them  to  infer 
that  in  the  limitless  or  infinite,  falsehood  and  envy  must 


OH.  IV.  j  GREEK  AGE  OF  INQUIRY.  115 

reign.  From  similar  reasoning,  they  concluded  that  the 
number  one  contained  not  only  the  perfect,  but  also  tho 
imperfect ;  hence  it  follows  that  the  most  good,  most 
beautiful,  and  most  true  are  not  at  the  beginning,  but  that 
they  are  in  the  process  of  time  evolved.  They  held  that 
whatever  we  know  must  have  had  a  beginning,  a  middle, 
and  an  end,  of  which  the  beginning  and  end  are  the 
boundaries  or  limits  ;  but  the  middle  is  unlimited,  and,  as 
a  consequence,  may  be  subdivided  ad  infinitum.  They 
therefore  resolved  corporeal  existence  into  points,  as  is  set 
forth  in  their  maxim  that  "  all  is  composed  of  points  or 
snacial  units,  which,  taken  together,  constitute  a  number." 
Such  being  their  ideas  of  the  limiting  which  constitutes 
the  extreme,  tiiey  understood  by  the  unlimited  the  inter- 
mediate space  or  interval.  By  the  aid  of  these  intervals 
they  obtained  a  conception  of  space  ;  for,  since  the  units, 
or  monads,  as  they  were  also  called,  are  merely  geometri- 
cal points,  no  number  of  them  could  produce  a  line,  but 
by  the  union  of  monads  and  intervals  conjointly  a  line 
can  arise,  and  also  a  surface,  and  also  a  solid.  As  to  the 
interval  thus  existing  between  monads,  some  considered  it 
as  being  mere  aerial  breath,  but  the  orthodox  regarded  it 
as  a  vacuum  ;  hence  we  perceive  the  meaning  of  their 
absurd  affirmation  that  all  things  are  produced  by  a 
vacuum.  As  it  is  not  to  be  overlooked  that  the  monads 
are  me:  ely  mathematical  point >,  and  have  no  dimensions 
or  size,  substances  actually  contain  no  matter,  and  are 
nothing  more  than  forms. 

The  Pythagoreans  applied  these  principles  to  account 
for  the  origin  of  the  world,  saying  that,  since  its  very 
existence  is  an  ilhision,  it  could  not  have  any  Pythagorean 
origin  in  time,  but  only  seemingly  so  to  human  cosmogony, 
thought.  As  to  time  itself,  they  regarded  it  as  "  existing 
only  by  the  distinction  of  a  series  of  different  moments, 
which,  however,  are  again  restored  to  unity  by  the  limit- 
ing moments."  The  diversity  of  relations  we  find  in  the 
world  they  supposed  to  be  occasioned  by  the  bond  of  har- 
mony. "  Since  the  principles  of  things  are  neither  similar 
nor  congenerous,  it  is  impossible  for  them  to  be  brought 
into  order  except  by  the  intervention  of  harmony,  whatever 
may  have  been  the  manner  in  which  it  took  place-  Liko 


116  GREEK   AGK   OF   INQUIRY.  [OH.  TV, 

and  homogeneous  things,  indeed,  would  not  have  required 
harmony  ;  but,  as  to  the  dissimilar  and  unsymmetrical, 
such  must  necessarily  be  held  together  by  harmony  if  they 
are  to  be  contained  in  a  world  of  order."  In  this  manner 
they  confused  together  the  ideas  of  number  and  harmony, 
regarding  the  world  not  only  as  a  combination  of  contraries, 
but  as  an  orderly  and  harnnonical  combination  thereof. 
To  particular  numbers  they  therefore  imputed  great  sig- 
nificance, asserting  that  "  there  are  seven  chords  or  har- 
monies, seven  pleiads,  seven  vowels,  and  that  certain  parh; 
ot  the  bodies  of  animals  change  in  the  course  of  seven 
years."  They  carried  to  an  extreme  the  numerical 
doctrine,  assigning  certain  numbers  as  the  representatives 
of  a  bird,  a  horse,  a  man.  This  doctrine  may  be  illustrated 
by  facts  familiar  to  chemists,  who,  in  like  manner,  attach 
significant  numbers  to  the  names  of  things.  Taking 
Modem  Py-  hydrogen  as  unity,  6  belongs  to  carbon,  8  to 
thagorisms  oxygen,  1 6  to  sulphur.  Carrying  these  principles 
try<  out,  there  is  no  substance,  elementary  or  com- 
pound, inorganic  or  organic,  to  which  an  expressive  number 
does  not  belong.  Kay,  even  an  archetypal  form,  as  of  man 
or  any  other  such  composite  structure,  may  thua  possess  a 
typical  number,  the  sum  of  the  numbers  of  its  constituent 
parts.  It  signifies  nothing  what  interpretation  we  give 
to  these  numbers,  whether  we  regarded  them  as  atomic 
weights,  or,  declining  the  idea  of  atoms,  consider  them  as 
the  representatives  ot  force.  As  in  the  ancient  philoso- 
phical doctrine,  so  in  modern  science,  the  number  is  in- 
variably connected  with  the  name  of  a  thing,  of  whatever 
description  the  thing  may  be. 

The  grand  standard  of  harmonical  relation  among  the 
Pythagoreans  was  the  musical  octave.  Physical  qualities, 
such  as  colour  and  tone,  were  supposed  to  appertain  to  the 
surface  of  bodies.  Of  the  elements  they  enumerated  five — 
earth,  air,  fire,  water,  and  ether,  connecting  therewith  the 
fact  that  man  has  five  organs  ol  sense.  Of  the  planets 
they  numbered  five,  which,  together  with  the  sun,  moon, 
and  earth,  are  placed  apart  at  distances  determined  by  a 
musical  law,  and  in  their  movements  through  space  give 
rise  to  a  sound,  the  harmony  of  the  spheres,  unnoticed  by 
us  because  we  habitually  hear  it.  They  place  the  sun 


CH.  IV.]  GREEK  AGE   OF   INQUIRY.  117 

in  the  centre  of  the  system,  round  which,  with  the  other 
planets,  the  earth  revolves.  At  this  point  the  pytbaKorean 
geocentric  doctrine  is  being  abandoned  and  the  physics  and 
heliocentric  takes  its  place.  As  the  circle  is  the  Ps>'cholos>'- 
most  perfect  of  forms,  the  movements  of  the  planets  are 
circular.  They  maintained  that  the  moon  is  inhabited,  and 
like  the  earth,  but  the  people  there  are  taller  than  men,  in 
the  proportion  as  the  moon's  periodic  rotation  is  greater 
than  that  of  the  earth.  They  explained  the  Milky  Way  as 
having  been  occasioned  by  the  fall  of  a  star,  or  as  having 
been  formerly  the  path  of  the  sun.  They  asserted  that  the 
world  is  eternal,  but  the  earth  is  transitory  and  liable  to 
change,  the  universe  being  in  the  shape  of  a  sphere.  They 
held  that  the  soul  of  man  is  merely  an  efflux  of  the 
universal  soul,  and  that  it  comes  into  the  body  from  with- 
out. From  dreams  and  the  events  of  sickness  they  inferred 
the  existence  of  good  and  evil  daemons.  They  supposed 
that  souls  can  exist  without  the  body,  leading  a  kind  of 
dream-life,  and  identified  the  motes  in  the  sunbeam  with 
them.  Their  heroes  and  daemons  were  souls  not  yet  become 
embodied,  or  who  had  ceased  to  be  so.  The  doctrine  of 
transmigration  which  they  had  adopted  was  in  harmony 
with  such  views,  and,  if  it  does  not  imply  the  absolute 
immortality  of  the  soul,  at  least  asserts  its  existence  after 
the  death  of  the  body,  for  the  disembodied  spirit  becomes 
incarnate  again  as  soon  as  it  finds  a  tenement  which  fits 
it.  To  their  life  after  death  the  Pythagoreans  added  a 
doctrine  of  retributive  rewards  and  punishments,  and,  in 
this  respect,  what  has  been  said  of  animals  forming  a 
penitential  mechanism  in  the  theology  of  ludia  and  Egyj.t, 
holds  good  for  the  Pythagoreans  too. 

Of  their  system  of  politics  nothing  can  now  with  cer- 
tainty be  affirmed  beyond  the  fact  that  its  prime  element 
was  an  aristocracy  ;  of  their  rule  of  private  life,  but  little 
beyond  its  including  a  recommendation  of  moderation  in 
all  things,  the  cultivation  of  friendship,  the  observance  of 
faith,  and  the  practice  of  self-denial,  promoted  by  ascetic- 
exercises.  It  was  a  maxim  with  them  that  a  right  educa- 
tion is  not  only  of  importance  to  the  'individual,  but  also 
to  the  interests  of  the  state.  Pythagoras  himself,  as  is 
well  known,  paid  much  attention  to  the  determination  of 


118  GREEK   AGE   OF   INQUIRY.  [CH.  IV. 

extension  and  gravity,  the  ratios  of  musical  tones,  astro- 
nomy, and  medicine.  He  directed  his  disciples,  in  their 
orgies  or  secret  worship,  to  practise  gymnastics,  dancing, 
music.  In  correspondence  -with  his  principle  of  imparting 
to  men  only  such  knowledge  as  they  were  fitted  to  receive, 
he  communicated  to  those  who  were  less  perfectly  prepared 
exoteric  doctrines,  reserving  the  esoteric  for  the  privileged 
few  who  had  passed  five  years  in  silence,  had  endured 
humiliation,  and  been  purged  by  self-denial  and  sacrifice. 

We  have  now  reached  the  consideration  of  the  Eleatic 
philosophy.  It  differs  from  the  preceding  in  its  neglect  of 
The  Eleatic  material  things,  and  its  devotion  to  the  supra- 
phiiosophy.  sensible.  It  derives  its  name  from  Elea,  a  Greek 
colonial  city  of  Italy,  its  chief  authors  being  Xenophanes, 
Parmenides,  and  Zeno. 

Xenophanes  was  a  native  of  Ionia,  from  which  having 
been  exiled,  he  appears  to  have  settled  at  last  in  Elea,  after 
leading  for  many  years  the  life  of  a  wandering  rhapsodist. 
Xenophanes  He  gave  his  doctrines  a,  poetical  form  for  the 
represents  a  purpose  of  more  easily  diffusing  them.  To  the 

great  philo-  ' •.       ,     ,       ,  '  .  _  ,  . 

euphicai  multitude  he  became  conspicuous  from  his  oppo- 
sition to  Homer,  Hesiod,  and  other  popular  poets, 
whom  he  denounced  for  promoting  the  base  polytheism  of 
the  times,  and  degrading  the  idea  of  the  divine  by  tho 
immoralities  they  attributed  to  the  gods.  He  proclaimed 
God  as  an  all-powerful  Being,  existing  from  eternity,  and 
without  any  likeness  to  man.  A  strict  monotheist,  he 
denounced  the  plurality  of  gods  as  an  inconceivable  error, 
asserting  that  of  the  all-powerful  and  all-perfect  there 
could  not,  in  the  nature  of  things,  be  more  than  one  ;  for, 
if  there  were  only  so  many  as  two,  those  attributes  could 
not  apply  to  one  of  them,  much  less,  then,  if  there  were 
many.  This  one  principle  or  power  was  to  him  the  same  as 
the  universe,  the  substance  of  which,  having  existed  from 
all  eternity,  must  necessarily  be  identical  with  God ;  for, 
since  it  is  impossible  that  there  should  be  two  Ornni- 
presents,  so  also  it  is  impossible  that  there  should  be  two 
Eternals.  It  therefore  may  be  said  that  there  is  a  tincture 
of  Orientalism  in  IHs  ideas,  since  it  would  scarcely  be 
possible  to  offer  a  more  succinct  and  luminous  exposition  of 
the  pantheism  of  India. 


CH.  IV.J  GREEK  AGE   OF   INQUIRY.  119 

The  reader  who  has  been  wearied  with  the  frivolities  of 
the  Ionian  philosophy,  and  lost  in  the  mysticisms  He  approaches 
of  Pythagoras,  cannot  fail  to  recognize  that  here  the  Indian 
we  have  something  of  a  very  different  kind.     To  ldea8' 
an  Oriental  dignity  of  conception  is  added  an  extraordinary 
clearness  and  precision  of  reasoning. 

To  Xenophanes  all  revelation  is  a  pure  fiction  ;  the 
discovery  of  the  invisible  is  to  be  made  by  the  intellect 
of  man  alone.  The  vulgar  belief  which  imputes  to  the 
Deity  the  sentiments,  passions,  and  crimes  of  riieoioay  of 
7nan,  is  blasphemous  and  accursed.  He  exposes  Xenophanes. 
the  impiety  of  those  who  would  figure  the  Great  Supreme 
under  the  form  of  a  man,  telling  them  that  if  the  ox  or 
the  lion  could  rise  to  a  conception  of  the  Deity,  they 
might  as  well  embody  him  under  their  own  shape  ;  that 
the  negro  represents  him  with  a  flat  nose  and  black  face  ; 
the  Thracian  with  blue  eyes  and  a  ruddy  complexion. 
"  There  is  but  one  God ;  he  has  no  resemblance  to  the 
bodily  form  of  man,  nor  are  his  thoughts  like  ours."  He 
taught  that  God  is  without  parts,  and  throughout  alike ; 
for,  if  he  had  parts,  some  would  be  ruled  by  others,  and 
others  would  rule,  which  is  impossible,  for  the  very  notion 
of  God  implies  his  perfect  and  thorough  sovereignty. 
Throughout  he  must  be  Keason,  and  Intelligence,  and 
Omnipotence,  "  ruling  the  univej-se  without  trouble  by 
Reason  and  Insight."  He  conceived  that  the  Supremo 
understands  by  a  sensual  perception,  and  not  only  thinks, 
but  sees  and  hears  throughout.  In  a  symbolical  manner 
he  represented  God  as  a  sphere,  like  the  heavens,  which 
encompass  man  and  all  earthly  things. 

In  his  natural  philosophy  it  is  said  that  he  adopted  the 
four  elements,  Earth,  Air,  Fire.  Water ;  though  by  some 
it  is  asserted  that,  from  observing  fossil  fish  on  the  tops  of 
mountains,  he  was  led  to  the  belief  that  the  His  physical 
earth  itself  arose  from  water ;  and  generally,  views- 
that  the  phenomena  of  nature  originate  in  combinations 
of  the  primary  elements.  From  such  views  he  inferred 
that  all  things  are  necessarily  transitory,  and  that  men, 
and  even  the  earth  itself,  must  pass  away.  As  to  the 
latter,  he  regarded  it  as  a  flat  surface,  the  inferior  region 
of  which  extends  indefinitely  downward,  and  so  gives  a 


120  GUEKK   AGE  OF    INQUIRY.  [dl.  IV. 

tolid  foundation.  His  physical  views  he,  however,  held 
with  a  doubt  almost  bordering  on  scepticism  :  "  No  mortal 
man  ever  did,  or  ever  shall  know  God  and  the  universe 
thoroughly  ;  for,  since  error  is  so  spread  over  all  things,  it 
is  impossible  for  us  to  be  certain  even  when  we  utter  the 
true  and  the  perfect."  It  seemed  to  him  hopeless  that 
man  could  ever  ascertain  the  truth,  t-ince  he  has  no  other 
aid  than  truthless  appearance-. 

I  cannot  dismiss  this  imperfect  account  of  Xenophanes, 
who  was,  undoubtedly,  one  of  the  greatest  of  the  Greek 
philosophers,  without  an  allusion  to  his  denunciation  of 
Homer,  and  other  poets  of  his  country,  because  they  had 
aided  in  degrading  the  idea  of  the  Divinity ;  and  also  to 
his  faith  in  human  nature,  his  rejection  of  the  principle  of 
concealing  truth  from  the  multitude,  and  his  self-devotion 
in  diffusing  it  among  all  at  a  risk  of  liberty  and  life. 
He  wandered  from  country  to  country,  withstanding 
polytheism  to  its  face,  and  imparting  wisdom  in  rhapsodies 
and  hymns,  the  form,  above  all  others,  calculated  most 
quickly  in  those  times  to  spread  knowledge  abroad.  To 
those  who  are  disposed  to  depreciate  his  philosophical  con- 
clusions, it  may  be  remarked  that  in  some  of  their  most 
striking  features  they  have  been  reproduced  in  modern 
times,  and  I  would  offer  to  them  a  quotation  from  the 
General  Scholium  at  the  end  of  the  third  book  of  the 
Principia  of  Newton  :  "  The  Supreme  God  exists 
thoughts  '*  necessarily,  and  by  the  same  necessity  he  exists 
reappear  in  aJwfii/K  and  cvcrincliere.  "Whence,  also,  he  is  all 

Newton.  •      -i  n  n  11    i        •          11  11 

similar,  all  eye,  all  ear,  all  brain,  all  arm,  all 
power  to  perceive,  to  understand,  and  to  act,  but  in  a 
manner  not  at  all  human,  not  at  all  corporeal ;  in  a  manner 
utterly  unknown  to  us.  As  a  blind  man  has  no  idea  of 
colours,  so  have  we  no  idea  of  the  manner  b^y  which  the  all- 
wise  God  perceives  and  understands  all  things.  He  is  utterly 
void  of  all  body  and  bodily  figure,  and  can  therefore  neither 
be  seen,  nor  heard,  nor  touched,  nor  ought  to  bo  worshipped 
Tinder  the  representation  of  any  corporeal  thing.  We  have 
ideas  of  his  attributes,  but  what  the  real  substance  of 
anything  is  we  know  not." 

To  the  Eleatic  system  thus  originating  with  Xenophanes 
is  to  be  attributed  the  dialectic  phase  henceforward  sr> 


CH.  IV. J  GREEK   AGE  OF  INQUIRY.  121 

prominently  exhibited  by  Greek  philosophy.  It  aban- 
doned, for  the  most  part,  the  pursuits  which  had  oc- 
cupied the  lonians — the  investigation  of  visible  nature, 
the  phenomena  of  material  things,  and  the  laws  presiding 
over  them ;  conceiving  such  to  be  merely  deceptive,  and 
attaching  itself  to  what  seemed  to  be  the  only  true  know- 
ledge— an  investigation  of  Being  and  of  God.  By  the 
'Eleats,  since  all  change  appeared  to  be  an  impossibility, 
the  phenomena  of  succession  presented  by  the  world  were 
regarded  as  a  pure  illusion,  and  they  asserted  that  Time, 
and  Motion,  and  Space  are  phantasms  of  the  imagination, 
or  vain  deceptions  of  the  senses.  They  therefore  separated 
reason  from  opinion,  attributing  to  the  former  parmeni(lcs 
conceptions  of  absolute  truth,  and  to  the  latter  on  reason  and 
imperfections  arising  from  the  fictions  of  sense.  opml 
It  was  on  this  principle  that  Parmenides  divided  his 
work  on  "  Nature  "  into  two  books,  the  first  on  Reason,  the 
second  on  Opinion.  Starting  from  the  nature  of  Being,  the 
uncreated  and  unchangeable,  he  denied  altogether  the  idea 
of  succession  in  time,  and  also  the  relations  of  space,  and 
pronounced  change  und  motion,  of  whatever  kind  they 
may  be,  mere  illusions  of  opinion.  His  pantheism  appears 
in  the  declaration  that  the  All  is  thought  and  phii0?0phy 
intelligence  ;  and  this,  indeed,  constitutes  the  booming 
essential  feature  of  his  doctrine ,  for,  by  thus 
placing  thought  and  being  in  parallelism  with  each  other, 
and  interconnecting  them  by  the  conception  that  it  is  for 
the  sake  of  being  that  thought  exists,  he  showed  that  they 
must  necessarily  be  conceived  of  as  one. 

Such  profound  doctrines  occupied  the  first  book  of  the 
poem  of  Parmenides ;  in  the  second  he  treated  of  opinion, 
which,  as  we  have  said,  is  altogether  dependent  on  the 
senses,  and  therefore  untrustworthy,  not,  however,  that  it 
must  necessarily  be  absolutely  false.  It  is  scarcely  possible 
for  us  to  reconstruct  from  the  remains  of  his  works  the 
details  of  his  theory,  or  to  show  his  approach  to  the  Ionian 
doctrines  by  the  assumption  of  the  existence  in  nature  of 
two  opposite  species — ethereal  fire  and  heavy  night ;  of 
an  equal  proportion  of  which  all  things  consist,  fire  being 
the  true,  and  night  the  phenomenal.  From  such  an  unsub- 
stantial and  delusive  basis  it  would  not  repay  us,  even  if 

VOL.  L— 7 


122  GREEK    AGE   OF    INQUIKY.  [CH.  IV. 

we  had  the  means  of  accomplishing  it,  to  give  an  exposition 
of  his  physical  system.  In  many  respects  it  degenerated 
into  a  wild  vagary;  as,  for  example,  when  he  placed  an 
overruling  daemon  in  the  centre  of  the  phenomenal  world. 
Nor  need  we  be  detained  by  his  extravagant  reproduction  of 
the  old  doctrine  of  the  generation  of  animals  from  miry  clay, 
nor  follow  his  explanation  of  the  nature  of  man,  who,  since 
he  is  composed  of  light  and  darkness,  participates  in  both, 
and  can  never  ascertain  absolute  truth.  By  other  routes, 
and  upon  far  less  fanciful  principles,  modern  philosophy 
has  at  last  come  to  the  same  melancholy  conclusion. 

The  doctrines  of  Parmenidcs  were  carried  out  by  Zeno 

the  Eleatic,  who  is  said  to  have  been  his  adopted 

Parmenides     son.     He  brought  into  use  the  method  of  refuting 

earned  out  error  by  the  reductio  ad  absurd nm.  His  corn- 
by  Zeno;  .  .  J  . 

positions  were  in  prose,  and  not  in  poetry,  as 

were  those  of  his  predecessors.  As  it  had  been  the 
object  of  Parmenides  to  establish  the  existence  of 
"the  One,"  it  was  the  object  of  Zeno  to  establish  the 
non-existence  of  "  the  Many."  Agreeably  to  such  prin- 
ciples, he  started  from  the  position  that  only  one  thing 
really  exists,  and  that  all  others  are  mere  modifications  or 
appearances  of  it.  He  denied  motion,  but  admitted  the 
appearance  of  it ;  regarding  it  as  a  name  given  to  a  series 
of  conditions,  each  of  which  is  necessarily  rest.  This 
dogma  against  the  possibility  of  motion  he  maintained  by 
four  arguments ;  the  second  of  them  is  the  celebrated 
Achilles  puzzle.  It  is  thus  stated :  "  Suppose  Achilles  to 
run  ten  times  as  fast  as  a  tortoise,  yet,  if  the  tortoise  has 
the  start,  Achilles  can  never  overtake  him ;  for,  if  they 
are  separated  at  first  by  an  interval  of  a  thousand  feet, 
when  Achilles  has  run  the«e  thousand  feet  the  tortoise  will 
have  nm  a  hundred,  and  when  Achilles  has  run  these 
hundred  the  tortoise  will  have  got  on  ten,  and  so  on  for 
ever ;  therefore  Achilles  may  run  for  ever  without  overtaking 
the  tortoise."  Such  were  his  arguments  against  the  exist- 
ence of  motion ;  his  proof  of  the  existence  of  One,  the 
indivisible  and  infinite,  may  thus  be  stated  :  "  To  suppose 
that  the  one  is  divisible  is  to  suppose  it  finite.  If  divisible, 
it  must  be  infinitely  divisible.  But  suppose  two  things 
to  exist,  then  there  must  necessarily  be  an  interval  between 


CH.  IV.]  GREEK  AGE  OF   INQUIRY.  123 

those  two — something  separating  and  limiting  them. 
What  is  that  something  ?  It  is  some  other  thing.  But 
then  if  not  the  same  thing,  it  also  must  be  separated  and 
limited,  and  so  on  ad  inftnitum.  Thus  only  one  thing  can 
exist  as  the  substratum  for  all  manifold  appearances." 
Zeno  furnishes  us  with  an  illustration  of  the  fallibility 
of  the  indications  of  sense  in  his  argument  against 
Protagoras.  It  may  be  here  introduced  as  a  specimen  of 
his  method  :  "  He  asked  if  a  grain  of  corn,  or  the  ten 
thousandth  part  of  a  grain,  would,  when  it  fell  to  the 
ground,  make  a  noise.  Being  answered  in  the  negative, 
he  further  asked  whether,  then,  would  a  measure  of  corn. 
This  being  necessarily  affirmed,  he  then  demanded  whe- 
ther the  measure  was  not  in  some  determinate  ratio  to  the 
single  grain  ;  as  this  could  not  be  denied,  he  was  able  to 
conclude,  either,  then,  the  bushel  of  corn  makes  no  noise  on 
falling,  or  else  the  very  smallest  portion  of  a  grain  does 
the  same." 

To  the  names  already  given  as  belonging  to  the  Eleatic 
school  may  be  added  that  of  Melissus  of  Samos,  and  by  Meiis- 
who  also  founded  his  argument  on  the  nature  of  susofSamos. 
Being,  deducing  its  unity,  unchangeability,  and  indivisi- 
bility. He  denied,  like  the  rest  of  his  school,  all  change 
and  motion,  regarding  them  as  mere  illusions  of  the  senses. 
From  the  indivisibility  of  being  he  inferred  its  incorpo- 
reality,  and  therefore  denied  all  bodily  existence. 

The  list  of  Eleatic  philosophers  is  doubtfully  closed  by 
the  name  of  Empedocles  of  Agrigentum,  who  Biography  of 
in  legend  almost  rivals  Pythagoras.  In  the  East  Empedocles. 
he?  learned  medicine  and  magic,  the  art  of  working 
miracles,  of  producing  rain  and  wind.  He  decked  himself 
in  priestly  garments,  a  golden  girdle,  and  a  crown,  pro- 
claiming himself  to  be  a  god.  It  is  said  by  some  that  he 
never  died,  but  ascended  to  the  skies  in  the  midst  of  a 
supernatural  glory.  By  some  it  is  related  that  he  leaped 
into  the  crater  of  Etna,  that,  the  manner  of  his  death  being 
unknown,  he  might  still  continue  to  pass  for  a  god — an 
expectation  disappointed  by  an  eruption  which  cast  out  one 
of  his  brazen  sandals. 

Agreeably  to  the  school  to  which  he  belonged,  he  relied 
on  Reason  and  distrusted  the  Senses,  From  his  fragments 


124  GREEK   AGE  OF   INQUIRY.  [CH.  IV. 

it  has  been  inferred  that  he  was  sceptical  of  the  guidance 
of  the  former  as  well  as  of  the  latter,  founding  his  dis- 
trust on  the  imperfection  the  soul  has  contracted,  and  for 
which  it  has  been  condemned  to  existence  in  this  world,  and 
even  to  transmigration  from  body  to  body.  Adopting  the 
Eleatic  doctrine  that  like  can  be  only  known  by  like,  fire 
by  fire,  love  by  love,  the  recognition  of  the  divine  by  man 
is  sufficient  proof  that  the  Divine  exists.  His  primary 
elements  were  four  —  Earth,  Air,  Fire,  and  Water ;  to  these 
he  added  two  principles,  Love  and  Hate.  The 
mjsUdwn8  f°ur  elements  he  regarded  as  four  gods,  or  divine 
withphiio-  eternal  forces,  since  out  of  them  all  things  are 
made.  Love  he  regards  as  the  creative  power,  the 
destroyer  or  modifier  being  Hate.  It  is  obvious,  therefore, 
that  in  him  the  strictly  philosophical  system  of  Xenophanes 
had  degenerated  into  a  mixed  and  mystical  view,  in  which 
the  physical,  the  metaphysical,  and  the  moral  were  con- 
founded together ;  and  that,  as  the  necessary  consequence 
of  such  a  state,  the  principles  of  knowledge  were  becoming 
unsettled,  a  suspicion  arising  that  all  philosophical  systems 
were  untrustworthy,  and  a  general  scepticism  was  already 
setting  in. 

To  this  result  also,  in  no  small  degree,  the  labours  of 
Democritus  of  Abdera  tended.  He  had  had  the  advantages 
derived  from  wealth  in  the  procurement  of  knowledge,  for 
it  is  said  that  his  father  was  rich  enough  to  be  able  to 
entertain  the  Persian  King  Xerxes,  who  was  so  gratified 
thereby  that  he  left  several  Magi  and  Chaldeans  to  com- 
plete the  education  of  the  youth.  On  his  father's  death, 
Democritus,  dividing  with  his  brothers  the  estate,  took  as 
his  portion  the  share  consisting  of  money,  leaving  to  them 
the  lands,  that  he  might  be  better  able  to  devote  himself  to 
travelling.  He  passed  into  Egypt,  Ethiopia,  Persia,  and 
India,  gathering  knowledge  from  all  those  sources. 

According  to  Democritus,  "  Nothing  is  true,  or,  if  so,  is 
not  certain  to  us."  Nevertheless,  as,  in  his  system  sensa- 
Dcmocritus  tion  constitutes  thought,  and,  at  the  same  time, 
asserts  the  un-  is  Dut  a  change  in  the  sentient  being,  "  sensations 

trustworthi-  ,,  „    ,.  ,«?', 

ness  of  know-  are   of  necessity  true ;     from  which  somewhat 
Wge.  obscure  passage  we  may  infer  that,  in  the  view 

of  Democritus,  though  sensation  is  true  subjectively,  it  is 


CH.  IV.]  GREEK  AGE  OF  INQUIRY.  125 

not  true  objectively.  The  sweet,  the  bitter,  the  hot,  the 
cold,  ai'e  simply  creations  of  the  mind  ;  but  in  the  outer 
object  to  which  we  append  them,  atoms  and  space  alone 
exist,  and  our  opinion  of  the  properties  of  such  objects  is 
founded  upon  images  emitted  by  them  falling  upon  the 
senses.  Confounding  in  this  manner  sensation  with 
thought,  and  making  them  identical,  he,  moreover,  include:! 
Reflexion  as  necessary  for  true  knowledge,  Sensation  by 
itself  being  untrustworthy.  Thus,  though  Sensation  may 
indicate  to  us  that  sweet,  bitter,  hot,  cold,  occur  in  bodies, 
Reflexion  teaches  us  that  this  is  altogether  an  illusion,  and 
that,  in  reality,  atoms  and  space  alone  exist. 

Devoting  his  attention,  then,  to  the  problem  of  per- 
ception— how  the  mind  becomes  aware  of  the  existence  of 
external  things — he  resorted  to  the  hypothesis  that  they 
constantly  throw  oif  images  of  themselves,  which  are 
assimilated  by  the  air  through  which  they  have  to  pass, 
and  enter  the  soul  by  pores  in  its  sensitive  organs.  Hence 
such  images,  being  merely  of  the  superficial  form,  are 
necessarily  imperfect  and  untrue,  and  so,  therefore,  must 
be  the  knowledge  yielded  by  them.  Democritus  rejected 
the  one  element  of  the  Eleatics,  affirming  that  there  must 
be  many ;  but  he  d:d  not  receive  the  four  of  Empedocles, 
nor  his  principles  of  Love  and  Hate,  nor  the  homoeomeria) 
of  Anaxagoras.  lie  also  denied  that  the  primary  He  intr<yluccs 
elements  had  any  sensible  qualities  whatever.  th<>  atomic 
He  conceived  of  all  things  as  being  composed  of  l] 
invisible,  intangible,  and  indivisible  particles  or  atoms, 
which,  by  reason  of  variation  in  their  configuration,  com- 
bination, or  position,  give  rise  to  the  varieties  of  forms  :  to 
the  atom  he  imputed  self-existence  and  eternal  duration. 
II  is  doctrine,  therefore,  explains  how  it  is  that  the  many 
can  arise  from  the  one,  and  in  this  particular  he  reconciled 
the  apparent  contradictions  of  the  lonians  and  Eleatics. 
The  theory  of  chemistry,  as  it  now  exists,  j^,  Fate 
essentially  includes  his  views.  The  general  and  resistless 
formative  principle  of  Nature  he  regarded  as  Uw- 
being  Destiny  or  Fate ;  but  there  are  indications  that  by 
this  he  meant  nothing  more  than  irreversible  law. 

A  system  thus  based  upon   severe   mathematical   con- 
siderations^  and  taking  as  its  starting-point  a  vacuum  and 


126  GREEK   AGE  OF    INQUIRY.  [OH.  IV, 

atoms — the  former  actionless  and  passionless ;  which 
considers  the  production  of  new  things  as  only  new 
aggregations,  and  the  decay  of  the  old  as  separations ; 
which  recognizes  in  compound  bodies  specific  arrange- 
ments of  atoms  to  one  another ;  which  can  rise  to  the 
conception  that  even  a  single  atom  may  constitute  a 
world — such  a  system  may  commend  itself  to  our  atten- 
tion for  its  results,  but  surely  not  to  our  approval,  when 
we  find  it  carrying  us  to  the  conclusions  that  even 
mathematical  cognition  is  a  mere  semblance ;  that  the 
soul  is  only  a  finely-constituted  form  fitted  into  the 
is  led  to  grosser  bodily  frame  ;  that  even  for  reason  itsdi 
atheism.  there  is  an  absolute  impossibility  of  all  cer- 
tainty ;  that  scepticism  is  to  be  indulged  in  to  that  degree 
that  we  may  doubt  whether,  when  a  cone  has  been  cut 
asunder,  its  two  surfaces  are  alike ;  that  the  final  result 
of  human  inquiry  is  the  absolute  demonstration  that  man 
is  incapable  of  knowledge ;  that,  oven  if  the  truth  be  in 
his  possession,  he  c:m  never  be  certain  of  it ;  that  the 
world  is  an  illusive  phantasm,  and  that  there  is  no  God. 

I  need  scarcely  refer  to  the  legendary  stories  related  of 
L<wnd<  of  Dcmocritus,  as  that  he  put  out  his  eyes  with  a 
iHmucritus.  burning-glass  that  ho  might  no  longer  bo 
deluded  with  their  f.tlse  indications,  and  more  tranquilly 
exercise  his  reason — a  fiction  bearing  upon  its  face  the 
contemptuous  accusation  of  his  antagonists,  but,  by  the 
stolidity  of  subsequent  ages,  received  as  an  actual  fact 
instead  of  a  sarcasm.  As  to  his  habit  of  so  constantly 
deriding  the  knowledge  and  follies  of  men  that  he  univer- 
sally acquired  the  epithet  of  the  laughing  philosopher,  wo 
may  receive  the  opinion  of  the  great  physician  Hippo- 
crates, who.  being  requested  by  the  people  of  Abdera  to 
cure  him  of  his  madness,  after  long  discoursing  with  him, 
expressed  himself  penetrated  with  admiration,  and  even 
•tvith  the  most  profound  veneration  for  him,  and  rebuked 
those  who  had  sent  him  with  the  remark  that  they  them- 
selves were  the  more  distempered  of  the  two. 

Thus  far  European  Greece  had  done  but  little  in  the 
cause  of  philosophy.  The  chief  schools  were  in  Asia 
Minor,  or  among  the  Greek  colonies  of  Italy.'  But  the 
time  had  now  arrived  when  the  mother  country  was  to 


CH.  IV.J  GREEK  AGE  OP  INQUIRY.  127 

enter  uj/m   a   distinguished  career,  though,  it  mast  be 
confessed,  from  a  most  unfavourable  beginning. 

rm_  •  i_  j.i.  i  R'se  of  pht- 

Ihis  was  by   no   means   the   only  occasion  on  losophyin 
which  the  intellectual  activity  of  the  Greek  co-  European 
lonies  made  itself  felt  in  the  destinies  of  Europe. 
The  mercantile  character  in  a  community  has  ever  been 
found   conducive   to   mental   activity   and    phj-sical    ad- 
venture ;    it   holds   in  light  esteem  prescriptive  opinion, 
and  puts  things  at  the   actual   value   they   at   the   time 
possess.       If  the   Greek    colonies    thus    discharged    the 
important    function    of    introducing    and   disseminating 
speculative  philosophy,   we   shall   find   them   again,   five 
hundred  years  later,  occupied  with  a  similar  task  on  the 
advent  of  that  period  in  which  philosophical  speculation 
was  about  to  be  supplanted  by  religious  faith.      For  there 
can   be   no   doubt  that,  humanly  speaking,  the  cause  of 
the   rapid   propagation   of  Christianity,  in  its 

r>      ,  ¥          •        AT.  j.  J'  'f      -TJ.'        Commercial 

first  ages,  lay  in  the  extraordinary  facilities  communities 
existing  among  the  commercial  communities  ^u™"™bleto 
scattered  all  around  the  shores  of  the  Mediter- 
ranean Sea,  from  the  ports  of  the  Levant  to  those  of 
France  and  Spain.  An  incessant  intercourse  was  kept  up 
among  them  during  the  five  centuries  before  Christ ;  it 
became,  under  Roman  influence,  more  and  more  active, 
and  of  increasing  political  importance.  Such  a  state  of 
things  is  in  the  highest  degree  conducive  to  the  propaga- 
tion of  thought,  and,  indeed,  to  its  origination,  through 
the  constant  excitement  it  furnishes  to  intellectual 
activity.  Commercial  communities,  in  this  respect,  pre- 
sent a  striking  contrast  to  agricultural.  By  their  aid 
speculative  philosophy  was  rapidly  disseminated  every- 
where, as  was  subsequently  Christianity.  But  the  agri- 
culturists stedfastly  adhered  with  marvellous  stolidity  to 
their  ancestral  traditions  and  polytheistic  absurdities, 
until  the  very  designation — paganism — under  which  their 
system  passes  was  given  as  a  nickname  derived  from 
themselves. 

The  intellectual  condition  of  the  Greek  colonies  of  Italy 
and  Sicily  has  not  attracted  the  attention  of  critics  in  the 
manner  at  deserves.  For,  though  its  political  result  may 
to  those  whose  attention  is  fixed  by  mere  material 


128  GREEK   AGE   OF  INQUIRY.  [oil.  IV 

aggrandizement  to  have  been  totally  eclipsed  by  the  sub- 
sequent power  of  the  Eoman  republic,  to  one 
umuenc^of11   who  looks   at   things   in  a   mere   general  way 
the  Greek        j^  may  foe  a  probable  inquiry  whether  the  phi- 

colonies.  f  -  *.  ,      .        ii      •*  i 

losophy  cultivated  in  those  towns  has  not, 
in  the  course  of  ages,  produced  as  solid  and  lasting  results 
as  the  military  achievements  of  the  Eternal  City.  The 
relations  of  the  Italian  peninsula  to  the  career  of  European 
civilization  are  to  bo  classified  under  three  epochs,  the 
first  corresponding  to  the  philosophy  generated  in  the 
southern  Greek  towns:  this  would  have  attained  the 
elevation  long  before  reached  in  the  advanced  systems  of 
India  had  it  not  been  prevented  by  the  rapid  develop- 
ment of  Eoman  power ;  the  second  presents  the  military 
influence  of  republican  and  imperial  Eome;  to  the  third 
belongs  the  agency  of  ecclesiastical  Eome — for  the  pro- 
duction of  the  last  we  shall  find  hereafter  that  the 
preceding  two  conspire.  The  Italian  effect  upon  the 
whole  has  therefore  been  philosophical,  material,  and 
mixed.  We  are  greatly  in  want  of  a  history  of  the  first, 
for  which  doubtless  many  facts  still  remain  to  a  pains- 
taking and  enlightened  inquirer. 

It  was  on  account  of  her  small  territory  and  hel 
numerous  population  that  Greece  was  obliged  to  colonize. 
To  these  motives  must  be  added  internal  dissensions,  and 
particularly  the  consequences  of  unequal  marriages.  So 
numerous  did  these  colonies  and  their  olfshoots  become,  that 
OH  .  of  the  a  great  Greek  influence  pervaded  all  the  Mediter- 
oreekcoioniai  ranean  shores  and  many  of  the  most  important 
islands,  attention  more  particularly  being  paid 
to  the  latter,  from  their  supposed  strategical  value ;  thus, 
in  the  opinion  of  Alexander  the  Great,  the  command  of 
the  Mediterranean  lay  in  the  possession  of  Cyprus.  The 
Greek  colonists  were  filibusters ;  they  seized  by  force  the 
women  wherever  they  settled,  but  their  children  were 
taught  to  speak  the  paternal  language,  as  has  been  the 
case  in  more  recent  times  with  the  descendants  of  the 
Spaniards  in  America.  The  wealth  of  some  of  these 
Greek  colonial  towns  is  said  to  have  been  incredible. 
Crotona  was  more  than  twelve  miles  in  circumference; 
and  Sybaris,  another  of  the  Ttaliot  cities,  was  so  luxurious 


CH.  IV.]  GREEK   AGE   OF   INQUIRY.  129 

and  dissipated  as  even  to  give  rise  to  a  proverb.  The 
prosperity  of  these  places  was  due  to  two  causes:  they 
were  not  only  the  centres  of  great  agricultural  districts, 
but  carried  on  also  an  active  commerce  in  all  directions,  the 
dense  population  of  the  mother  country  offering  them  a 
steady  and  profitable  market ;  they  also  maintained  au 
active  traffic  with  all  the  Mediterranean  cities ;  thus,  if 
they  fumished  Athens  with  corn,  they  also  furnished 
Carthage  with  oil.  In  the  Greek  cities  connected  with 
this  colonial  system,  especially  in  Athens,  the  business  of 
.<•  hip-building  and  navigation  was  so  extensively  prose- 
cuted as  to  give  a  special  character  to  public  life.  !n 
other  parts  of  Greece,  as  in  Sparta,  it  was  altogether 
different.  In  that  state  the  laws  of  Lycurgus  had  abolished 
private  property ;  all  things  were  held  in  common ; 
savage  life  was  reduced  to  a  system,  and  therefore  there 
was  no  object  in  commerce.  But  in  Athens,  commerce  was 
regarded  as  being  so  far  from  dishonourable  that  some  of 
the  most  illustrious  men,  whose  names  have  descended  to 
us  as  philosophers,  were  occupied  with  mercantile  pursuits. 
Aristotle  kept  a  druggist's  shop  in  Athens,  and  Plato  sold 
oil  in  Egypt. 

It  was  the  intention  of  Athens,  had  she  succeeded  in  the 
conquest  of  Sicily,  to  make  an  attempt  upon  Carthage, 
foreseeing  therein  the  dominion  of  the  Mediterranean,  as 
was  actually  realized  subsequently  by  Rome.  The  de- 
struction of  that  city  constituted  the  point  of  ascendency 
in  the  history  of  the  Great  Eepublic.  Carthage  stood 
upon  a  peninsula  forty-five  miles  round,  with  a  neck  only 
three  miles  across.  Her  territory  has  been  estimated  as 
having  a  sea-line  of  not  less  than  1400  miles,  and  contain- 
ing 300  towns ;  she  had  also  possessions  in  Spain,  in 
Sicily,  and  other  Mediterranean  islands,  acquired,  not  by 
conquest,  but  by  colonization.  In  the  silver  mines  of 
Spain  fche  employed  not  less  than  forty  thousand  men.  In 
these  respects  she  was  guided  by  the  maxims  of  her 
Phoenician  ancestry,  for  the  Tynans  had  colonized  for 
depots,  and  had  forty  stations  of  that  kind  in  the  Medi- 
terranean. Indeed,  Carthage  herself  originated  in  that 
way,  owing  her  development  to  the  po-ition  she  held  at 
the  junction  of  the  east  and  west  basins.  The  Carthaginian 

7* 


130  GREEK  AGE   OF   INQUIRY.  [CH.  IV. 

merchants  did  not  carry   for  hire,   but    dealt  in   their 
commodities.    This  implied  an  extensive  system 

fuprenmcyta  °f  depots  and  bonding.     They  had  anticipated 

*an  Mn*Ulcr~    niany  of  the  devices  of  modern  commerce.    They 
effected  insurances,  made  loano  on  bottomry,  and 

it  has  been  supposed  that  their  leathern  money  may  havo 

been  of  the  nature  of  our  bank  notes. 

In  the  preceding  chapter  we  havo  spoken  of  the  attempts 

Attempts  of    °f  the  Asiatics  on  Egypt  and  the  south  shore  of 

the  Persians     the  Mediterranean;  we    have   now  to  turn  to 

at  dominion       ,,     .  .  '    ,  ,,        ,  ,, 

intheM<'-  their  operations  on  the  north  shore,  the  conse- 
diterranean.  quences  of  which  are  of  the  utmost  interest  in 
the  history  of  philosophy.  It  appears  that  the  cities  of 
Asia  Minor,  after  their  contest  with  the  Lydian  kings, 
had  fallen  an  easy  prey  to  the  Persian  power.  It  re- 
mained, therefore,  only  for  that  power  to  pass  to  the 
European  continent.  A  pretext  is  easily  found  where  the 
policy  is  so  clear.  So  far  as  the  internal  condition  of 
Greece  was  concerned,  nothing  could  be  more  tempting  to 
an  invader.  There  seemed  to  be  no  bond  of  union  between 
the  different  towns,  and,  indeed,  the  more  prominent  ones 
might  be  regarded  as  in  a  state  of  chronic  revolution.  In 
Athens,  since  B.C.  622,  the  laws  of  Draco  had  been  sup- 
planted by  those  of  Solon  ;  and  again  and  again  the 
government  had  been  seized  by  violence  or  gained  through 
intrigue  by  one  adventurer  after  another.  Under  theso 
Contest  be-  circumstances  the  Persian  king  passed  an  army 
twe«n  them  into  Europe.  The  military  events  of  both  this 
andtheGrecks.  an(j  ^e  succee<jjng  invasion  under  Xerxes  have 
been  more  than  sufficiently  illustrated  by  the  brilliant 
imagination  of  the  lively  Greeks.  It  was  needless,  how- 
ever, to  devise  such  fictions  as  the  million  of  men  who 
crossed  into  Europe,  or  the  two  hundred  thousand  who  lay 
dead  upon  the  field  after  the  battle  of  Plataea.  If  there 
were  not  such  stubborn  facts  as  the  capture  and  burning 
The  fifty  of  Athens,  the  circumstance  that  these  wars 
years'  war,  lasted  for  fifty  years  would  be  sufficient  to  in- 

ntid  eventual      „  ,      ,      ii   ,,          j- 

supremacy  form  us  that  all  the  advantages  were  not  on  one 
of  Athens.  side.  Wars  do  not  last  so  long  without  bring- 
ing upon  both  parties  disasters  as  well  as  conferring 
glories ;  and  had  these  been  as  exterminating  and  over- 


CH.  IV.  I  GREEK   AGE  OF   INQUIRY.  131 

whelming  as  classical  authors  have  supposed,  our  surprise 
may  well  be  excited  that  the  Persian  annals  have  preserved 
so  little  memory  of  them.  Greece  did  not  perceive  that, 
if  posterity  must  take  her  accounts  as  true,  it  must  give 
the  palm  of  glory  to  Persia,  who  could,  with  unfaltering 
perseverance,  persist  in  attacks  illustrated  by  such  un- 
paralleled catastrophes.  She  did  not  perceive  that  the 
annals  of  a  nation  may  be  more  splendid  from  their  ex- 
hibiting a  courage  which  could  bear  up  for  half  a  century 
against  continual  disasters,  and  extract  victory  at  last  from 
defeat. 

In  pursuance  of  their  policy,  the  Persians  extended  their 
dominion  to  Gyrene  and  Barca  on  the  south,  as  well  as  to 
Thrace  and  Macedonia  on  the  north.  The  Persian  wars 
gave  rise  to  that  wonderful  development  in  Greek  art 
which  has  so  worthily  excited  the  admiration  of  subsequent 
ages.  The  assertion  is  quite  true  that  after  those  wars  the 
Greeks  could  form  in  sculpture  living  men.  On  the  part 
of  the  Persians,  these  military  undertakings  were  not  of 
the  base  kind  so  common  in  antiquity ;  they  were  the 
carrying  out  of  a  policy  conceived  with  great  ability,  their 
object  being  to  obtain  countries  for  tribute  and  not  for 
devastation.  The  great  critic  Niebuhr,  by  whose  opinions 
I  am  guided  in  the  views  I  express  of  these  events,  admits 
that  the  Greek  accounts,  when  examined,  present  little 
that  was  possible.  The  Persian  empire  does  not  seem  to 
have  suffered  at  all ;  and  Plato,  whose  opinion  must  be 
considered  as  of  very  great  authority,  says  that,  on  the 
whole,  the  Fer.^ian  wars  reflect  extremely  little  honour  on 
the  Greeks.  It  was  asserted  that  only  thirty- one  towns, 
and  most  of  them  small  ones,  were  faithful  to  Greece. 
Treason  to  her  seems  for  years  in  succession  to  have  in- 
fected all  her  ablest  men.  It  was  not  Pausanias  alone  who 
wanted  to  be  king  under  the  supremacy  of  Persia.  Such  a 
satrap  would  have  borne  about  the  same  relation  to  the 
great  king  as  the  modern  pacha  does  to  the  grand  seignior. 
However,  we  must  do  justice  to  those  able  men.  A  king 
was  what  Greece  in  reality  required;  had  she  secured  one 
at  this  time  strong  enough  to  hold  her  conflicting  interests 
in  check,  s-he  would  have  become  the  mistress  of  the  world. 
Her  leading  men  saw  this. 


132  GREEK   AGE   OF   INQUIRY.  [CH.  IV. 

The  elevating  effect  of  the  Persian  wars  was  chiefly  felt 
in  Athens.  It  was  there  that  the  grand  development  of 
pure  art,  literature,  5  nd  science  took  place.  As 
quenceufher  to  Sparta,  she  remained  barbarous  as  she  had  . 
tuai  'repress  ever  ^)GGU  >  ^ie  Spartans  continuing  robbers  and 
impostors,  in  their  national  life  exhibiting  not  a 
single  feature  that  can  be  commended.  Mechanical  art 
reached  its  perfection  at  Corinth  ;  real  art  at  Athens,  'find- 
ing a  multitude  not  only  of  true,  but  also  of  new  ex- 
pressions. Before  Pericles  the  only  style  of  architecture 
was  the  Doric;  his  became  at  once  the  age  of  perfect 
beauty.  It  also  became  the  age  of  freedom  in  thinking 
Her  progress  and  departure  from  the  national  faith.  In  this 
in  an.  respect  the  history  of  Pericles  and  of  Aspasia  is 

very  significant.  II  is,  also,  was  the  great  age  of  oratory, 
but  of  oratory  leading  to  delusion,  the  democratical  forms 
of  Athens  being  altogether  deceptive,  power  ever  remain- 
ing in  the  hands  of  a  few  leading  men,  who  did  every- 
thing. The  true  popular  sentiment;  as  was  almost  always 
the  case  under  those  ancient  republican  institutions,  could 
find  for  itself  no  means  of  expression.  The  great  men 
were  only  too  prone  to  regard  their  fellow-citizens  as  a 
rabble,  mere  things  to  be  played  off  against  one  another, 
and  to  consider  that  the  objects  of  life  are  dominion  and 
lust,  that  love,  self-sacrifice,  and  devotion  are  fictions ;  that 
oaths  are  only  good  for  deception. 

Though  the  standard  of  statesmanship,  at  the  period  of 
the  Persian  wars,  was  very  low,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that 
among  the  Greek  leaders  were  those  who  clearly  understood 
the  causes  of  the  Asiatic  attack ;  and  hence,  with  an  instinct 
of  self-preservation,  defensive  alliances  were  continually 
The  treaty  maintained  with  Egypt.  When  their  valour  and 
with  Persia,  endurance  had  given  to  the  Greeks  a  glorious 
issue  to  the  war,  the  articles  contained  in  the  final  treaty 
manifest  clearly  the  motives  and  understandings  of  both 
parties.  No  Persian  vessel  was  to  appear  between  the 
Cyanean  Rocks  and  Chelidonian  Islands  ;  no  Persian  army 
to  approach  within  three  days'  journey  of  the  Mediterranean 
Sea,  B.C.  449. 

To  Athens  herself  the  war  had  given  political  supremacy. 
We  need  only  look  at  her  condition  fifty  years  after  the 


CH.  IV.J  GREEK  AGE  OF   INQUIRY.  133 

battle  of  Platsea.  She  was  mistress  of  more  than  a  thousand 
miles  of  the  coast  of  Asia  Minor ;  she  held  as  dependencies 
more  thau  forty  islands ;  she  controlled  the  straits  between 
Europe  and  Asia  ;  her  fleets  ranged  the  Mediterranean  and 
the  Black  Seas ;  she  had  monopolized  the  trade  of  all  the 
adjoining  countries ;  her  magazines  were  full  of  the  most 
valuable  objects  of  commerce.  From  the  ashes  of  the 
Persian  fire  she  had  risen  up  so  supremely  beautiful  that 
her  temples,  her  statues,  her  works  of  art.  in 

,1  •*-..,  _     ,.  •,  .  i_     j  She  becomes 

their  exquisite  perfection,  have  since  had    no  the  centre 
parallel  in  the  world.     Her  intellectual  supre-  of  policy  and 

n    j  i  TJ.-      i       m     i_  f       1    Philosophy. 

macy  equalled  her  political.  I  o  her,  as  to  a  focal 
point,  the  rays  of  light  from  every  direction  converged. 
The  philosophers  of  Italy  and  Asia  Minor  directed  their 
steps  to  her  as  to  the  acknowledged  centre  of  mental 
activity.  As  to  Egypt,  an  utter  ruin  had  befallen  her 
since  she  was  desolated  by  the  Persian  arms.  Yet  we 
must  not  therefore  infer  that  though,  as  conquerors,  the 
Persians  had  trodden  out  the  most  aged  civilization  on  the 
globe,  as  sovereigns  they  were  haters  of  knowledge,  or 
merciless  as  kings.  We  must  not  forget  that  the  Greeks 
of  Asia  Minor  were  satisfied  with  their  rule,  or,  at  all 
events,  preferred  rather  to  remain  their  subjects  than  to 
contract  any  permanent  political  connexions  with  the 
conquering  Greeks  of  Europe. 

In  this  condition  of  political  glory,  Athens  became  not 
only  the  birth-place  of  new  and  beautiful  productions  of 
art,  founded  on  a  more  just  appreciation  of  the  true  than 
had  yet  been  attained  to  in  any  previous  age  of  the  world 
(which,  it  may  be  added,  have  never  been  surpassed,  if, 
indeed,  they  have  been  equalled  since),  she  also  became  the 
receptacle  for  every  philosophical  opinion,  new  and  old. 
Ionian,  Italian,  Egyptian,  Persian,  all  were  brought  to 
her,  and  contrasted  and  compared  together.  Indeed,  the 
philosophical  celebrity  of  Greece  is  altogether  due  to 
Athens.  The  rest  of  the  country  participated  but  little 
in  the  cultivation  of  learning.  It  is  a  popular  error  that 
Greece,  in  the  aggregate,  was  a  learned  country. 

We  have  already  seen  how  the  researches  of  individual 
inquirers,  passing  from  point  to  point,  had  conducted  them, 
in  many  instances,  to  a  suspicion  of  the  futility  of  human 


134  GREEK   AGE  OF  INQUIRY.  [dl.  IV. 

knowledge;  and  looking  at  the  results  reached  by  the 
state  of  phi-  succe88ive  philosophical  schools,  we  cannot  fail 
I  iosophy  nt  to  remark  that  there  was  a  general  tendency  to 
thu  juncture.  8cepticism.  We  have  seen  how,  from  the  material 
and  tangible  beginnings  of  the  lonians,  the  Eleatics  land 
us  not  only  in  a  blank  atheism,  but  in  a  disbelief  of  the 
existence  of  the  world.  And  though  it  may  be  said  that 
these  were  only  the  isolated  results  of  special  schools,  it  is 
not  to  be  forgotten  that  they  were  of  schools  the  most 
advanced.  The  time  had  now  arrived  when  the  name  of 
a  master  was  no  more  to  usurp  the  place  of  reason,  as  had 
been  hitherto  the  case  ;  when  these  last  results  of  the 
different  methods  of  philosophizing  were  to  be  brought 
together,  a  criticism  of  a  higher  order  established,  and 
conclusions  of  a  higher  order  deduced. 

Thus  it  will  ever  be  with  all  human  investigation.    The 
primitive  philosophical  elements  from  which  we 

Commen<v-  •       j      .e      i    i_  JAI.          v. 

mcntofthe  start  are  examined,  nrst  by  one  and  then  by 
higher  ana-  another,  each  drawing  his  own  special  con- 
clusions and  deductions,  and  each  firmly  be- 
lieving in  the  truth  of  his  inferences.  Each  analyst  has 
seen  the  whole  subject  from  a  particular  point  of  view, 
without  concerning  himself  with  the  discordances,  contra- 
dictions, and  incompatibilities  obvious  enough  when  his 
conclusions  come  to  be  compared  with  those  of  other  analysts 
as  skilful  as  himself.  In  process  of  time,  it  needs  must  be 
that  a  new  school  of  examiners  will  arise,  who,  taking  the 
results  at  which  their  predecessors  have  arrived  from  an 
examination  of  the  primary  elements,  will  institute  a 
secondary  comparison  ;  a  comparison  of  results  with  results  ; 
a  comparison  of  a  higher  order,  and  more  likely  to  lead  to 
absolute  truth. 

Perhaps  I  cannot  better  convey  what  I  here  mean  \>y 

this  secondary  and  higher  analysis  of  philosophical  questions 

than   by  introducing,  as  an  illustration,  what 

Illustration  ,         f  n ,,        •       T>  ••_    i 

from  subse-  took  place  subsequently  in  Kome,  through  her 
qm-nt  Roman  policy  of  universal  religious  toleration.  The 
priests  and  followers  of  every  god  and  of  every 
faith  were  permitted  to  pursue  without  molestation  their 
special  forms  of  worship.  Of  these,  it  may  be  supposed 
that  nearly  all  were  perfectly  sincere  in  their  adherence  to 


CH.  IV.]  CREEK  AGE  OF  INQUIRY.  135 

their  special  divinity,  and,  if  the  occasion  had  arisen,  could 
have  furnished  unanswerable  arguments  in  behalf  of  his 
supremacy  and  of  the  truth  of  his  doctrines.  Yet  it  is 
very  clear  that,  by  thus  bringing  these  several  primary 
systems  into  contact,  a  comparison  of  a  secondary  and  of 
a  higher  order,  and  therefore  far  more  likely  to  approach  to 
absolute  truth,  must  needs  be  established  among  them.  It 
is  very  well  known  that  the  popular  result  of  this  secondary 
examination  was  the  philosophical  rejection  of  polytheism. 
So,  in  Athens  the  result  of  the  secondary  examination  of 
philosophical  systems  and  deductions  was  scepticism  as 
regards  them  all,  and  the  rise  of  a  new  order  of 

°         ,,„,.'.  .      ,     -.     , ,        The  Sophists. 

men — the  Sophists — who  not  only  rejected  the 
validity  of  all  former  philosophical  methods,  but  carried 
their  infidelity  to  a  degree  plainly  not  warranted  by  the 
facts  of  the  case,  in  this,  that  they  not  only  denied  that 
human  reason  had  thus  far  succeeded  in  ascertaining  any- 
thing, but  even  affirmed  that  it  is  incapable,  from  its  very 
nature,  as  dependent  on  human  organization,  or  the  con- 
dition under  which  it  acts,  of  determining  the  truth  at  all ; 
nay,  that  even  if  the  truth  is  actually  in  its  possession, 
since  it  has  no  criterion  by  which  to  recognize  it,  it  can- 
not so  much  as  be  certain  that  it  is  in  such  possession  of  it. 
From  these  principles  it  follows  that,  since  we  have  no 
standard  of  the  true,  neither  can  we  have  any  standard  of 
the  good,  and  that  our  ideas  of  what  is  good  and  what  is 
evil  are  altogether  produced  by  education  or  by  convention. 
Or,  to  use  the  phrase  adopted  by  the  Sophists,  "  it  is  might 
that  makes  right."  Right  and  wrong  are  hence  seen  to  be 
mere  fictions  created  by  society,  having  no  eternal  or 
absolute  existence  in  nature.  The  will  of  a  monarch,  or  of 
a  majority  in  a  community,  declares  what  the  law  shall  be  ; 
the  law  defines  what  is  right  and  what  is  wrong ;  and 
these,  therefore,  instead  of  having  an  actual  existence,  are 
mere  illusions,  owing  their  birth  to  the  exercise  of  force. 
It  is  might  that  has  determined  and  defined  what  is  right. 
And  hence  it  follows  that  it  is  needless  for  a 
man  to  trouble  himself  with  the  monitions  of  philosophy, 
conscience,  or  to  be  troubled  thereby,  for  con- 
science,  instead  of  being  anything  real,  is  an 
imaginary  fiction,  or,  at  tho  best,  owes  its  origin  to 


136  GREEK   AGE  OF   INQUIRY.  [CH.  IV. 

education,  and  is  the  creation  of  our  social  state.  Hence 
the  wise  will  give  himself  no  concern  as  to  a  meritorious 
act  or  a  crime,  seeing  that  the  one  is  intrinsically  neither 
better  nor  worse  than  the  other ;  but  he  will  give  himself 
sedulous  concern  as  respects  his  outer  or  external  relations 
— his  position  in  society ;  conforming  his  acts  to  that 
standard  which  it  in  its  wisdom  or  folly,  but  in  the 
exercise  of  its  might,  has  declared  shall  bo  regarded  as 
right.  Or,  if  his  occasions  be  such  as  to  make  it  for  his 
interest  to  depart  from  the  social  rule,  let  him  do  it  in 
secrecy ;  or,  what  is  far  better,  let  him  cultivate  rhetoric, 
that  noble  art  by  which  the  wrong  may  be  made  to 
appear  the  right ;  by  which  he  who  has  committed  a  crime 
may  so  mystify  society  as  to  delude  it  into  the  belief  that  ho 
is  worthy  of  praise ;  and  by  which  he  may  prove  that  his 
enemy,  who  has  really  per  formed  some  meritorious  deed, 
has  been  guilty  of  a  crime.  Animated  by  such  considera- 
tions, the  Sophists  passed  from  place  to  place,  offering  to 
sell  for  a  sum  of  money  a  knowledge  of  the  rhetorical 
art,  and  disposed  of  their  services  in  the  instruction  of 
the  youth  of  wealthy  and  noble  families. 

What  shall  we  say  of  such  a  system  and  of  such  a  state 
of  things  ?  Simply  this :  that  it  indicated  a  complete 
mental  and  social  demoralization — mental  demoralization, 
for  the  principles  of  knowledge  were  sapped,  and  man 
persuaded  that  his  reason  was  no  guide ;  social  demorali- 
zation, for  he  was  taught  that  right  and  wrong,  virtue  and 
vice,  conscience,  and  law,  and  God,  are  imaginary  fictions ; 
that  there  is  no  harm  in  the  commission  of  sin,  though 
there  may  be  harm,  as  assuredly  there  is  folly,  in  being 
detected  therein ;  that  it  is  excellent  for  a  man  to  sell  his 
country  to  the  Persian  king,  provided  that  the  sum  of 
money  he  receives  is  large  enough,  and  that  the  transaction 
is  so  darkly  conducted  that  the  public,  and  particularly 
his  enemies,  can  never  find  it  out.  Let  him  never  forget 
that  patriotism  is  the  first  delusion  of  a  simpleton,  and  the 
last  refuge  of  a  knave. 

Such  were  the  results  of  the  first  attempt  to  correct  the 
partial  philosophies,  by  submitting  them  to  the  measure 
of  a  more  universal  one ;  such  the  manner  in  which,  instead 
of  only  losing  their  exclusiveness  and  imperfections  by 


CH.  IV.]  GREEK  AGE   OF   INQUIRY.  137 

their  contact  with  one  another,  they  were  wrested  from 
their  proper  object,  and  made  subservient  to  the  purpose 
of  deception.  Nor  was  it  science  alone  that  was  affected  ; 
already  might  be  discerned  the  foreshadowings  of  that 
conviction  which  many  centuries  later  occasioned  the  final 
destruction  of  polytheism  in  Rome.  Already,  in  Athens, 
the  voice  of  philosophers  was  heard,  that  among  so  many 
gods  and  so  many  different  worships  it  was  impossible 
for  a  man  to  ascertain  what  is  true.  Already,  Theyrejpct 
many  even  of  the  educated  wero  overwhelmed  the  national 
with  the  ominous  suggestion  that,  if  ever  it  had  rellglon- 
been  the  will  of  heaven  to  reveal  any  form  of  faith  to  the 
world,  such  a  revelation,  considering  its  origin,  must 
necessarily  have  come  with  sufficient  power  to  override  all 
opposition ;  that  if  there  existed  only  as  many  as  two 
forms  of  faith  synchronous  and  successful  in  the  world, 
that  fact  would  of  itself  demonstrate  that  neither  of  them 
is  true,  and  that  there  never  had  been  any  revelation  from 
an  all- wise  and  omnipotent  God.  Nor  was  it  merely 
among  the  speculative  men  that  these  infidelities  were 
cherished ;  the  leading  politicians  and  statesmen  had  be- 
come deeply  infected  with  them.  It  was  not  Anaxagoras 
alone  who  was  convicted  of  atheism  ;  the  same  charge  was 
made  against  Pericles,  the  head  of  the  republic — he  who 
had  done  so  much  for  the  glory  of  Athens — the  spread  of 
man  who,  in  practical  life,  was,  beyond  all  their  0P\i>ions 

,.  ',        ~r          f   -i.  ITT-, -i      J-/E      ij.       among  the 

question,  the  first  ot  his  age.  With  difficulty  highest 
he  succeeded,  by  the  use  of  what  influence  re-  classes- 
mained  to  him,  in  saving  the  life  of  the  guilty  philosopher 
his  friend,  but  in  the  public  estimation  he  was  universally 
viewed  as  a  participator  in  his  crime.  If  the  foundations 
of  philosophy  and  those  of  religion  were  thus  sapped,  the 
foundations  of  law  experienced  no  better  fate.  The  Sophists, 
who  were  wandering  all  over  the  world,  saw  that  each 
nation  had  its  own  ideas  of  merit  and  demerit,  and  there- 
fore its  own  system  of  law ;  that  even  in  different  towns 
there  were  contrary  conceptions  of  right  and  wrong,  and 
therefore  opposing  codes.  It  is  evident  that  in  such  exami- 
nations they  applied  the  same  principles  which  had  guided 
them  in  their  analysis  of  philosophy  and  religion,  and  that 
the  result  could  be  no  other  than  it  was,  to  bring  them  to 


138  GREEK   AGE  OF  INQUIRY.  [CH.  FT 

the  conclusion  that  there  is  nothing  absolute  in  justice  or 
in  law.  To  what  an  appalling  condition  society  has  arrived, 
when  it  reaches  the  positive  conclusion  that  there  is  no 
truth,  no  religion,  no  justice,  no  virtue  in  the  world ;  that 
the  only  object  of  human  exertion  is  unrestrained  physical 
enjoyment ;  the  only  standard  of  a  man's  position,  wealth  ; 
that,  since  there  is  no  possibility  of  truth,  whose  eternal 
principles  might  serve  for  an  uncontrovertible  and  common 
guide,  we  should  resort  to  deception  and  the  arts  of  per- 
suasion, that  we  may  dupe  others  for  our  purposes ;  that 
there  is  no  sin  in  undermining  the  social  contract ;  no 
crime  in  blasphemy,  or  rather  there  is  no  blasphemy  at 
all,  since  there  are  no  gods ;  that  "  man  is  the  measure  of 
all  things,"  as  Protagoras  teaches,  and  that  "  he  is  the 
criterion  of  existence  ;"  that  "  thought  is  only  the  relation 
of  the  thinking  subject  to  the  object  thought  of,  and  that 
the  thinking  subject,  the  soul,  is  nothing  more  than  the 
sum  of  the  different  moments  of  thinking."  It  is  no  wonder 
that  that  Sophist  who  was  the  author  of  such  doctrines 
should  be  condemned  to  death  to  satisfy  the  clamours 
They  end  °^  a  P°Pulace  who  had  not  advanced  sufficiently 
in  binnk  into  the  depths  of  this  secondary,  this  higher 
philosophy,  and  that  it  was  only  by  flight  that 
he  could  save  himself  from  the  punishment  awaiting  the 
opening  sentiment  of  his  book  :  "  Of  the  gods  I  cannot  tell 
whether  they  are  or  not,  for  much  hinders  us  from  know- 
ing this — both  the  obscurity  of  the  subject  and  the  short- 
ness of  life."  It  is  no  wonder  that  the  social  demoralization 
spread  apace,  when  men  like  Gorgias,  the  disciple  of 
Empedocles,  were  to  be  found,  who  laughed  at  virtue, 
made  an  open  derision  of  morality,  and  proved,  by  meta- 
physical demonstration,  that  nothing  at  all  exists. 

From  these  statements  respecting  the  crisis  at  which 
ancient  philosophy  had  arrived,  we  might  be  disposed  to 
believe  that  the  result  was  unmitigated  evil,  for  it  scarcely 
deserves  mention  that  the  quibbles  and  disputes  of  the 
Sophists  occasioned  an  extraordinary  improvement  of  the 
Greek  language,  introducing  precision  into  its  terms,  and 
a  wonderful  dialectical  skill  into  its  use.  For  us  there  may 
be  extracted  from  these  melancholy  conclusions  at  least 
one  instructive  lesson — that  it  ia  not  during  the  process  of 


CH.  IV.]  GREEK   AGE  OF  INQUIRY.  139 

decomposition  of  philosophies,  and  especially  of  religions, 
that  social  changes  occur,  for  such  breakings-up 
commonly  go  on  in  an  isolated,  and  therefore  dangers  of 
innocuous  way  :  but  if  by  chance  the  fragments  the  h'gher 

,    ,  j         _A-  -u  IJ.J.AU          analyss. 

and  decomposed  portions  are  brought  together, 
and  attempts  are  made  by  fusion  to  incorporate  them  anew, 
or  to  extract  from  them,  by  a  secondary  analysis,  what 
truth  they  contain,  a  crisis  is  at  once  brought  on,  and — 
such  is  the  course  of  events — in  the  catastrophe  that  ensues 
they  are  commonly  all  absolutely  destroyed.  It  was  doubt- 
less their  foresight  of  such  consequences  that  inspired  the 
Italian  statesmen  of  the  Middle  Ages  with  a  nlustration8 
resolute  purpose  of  crushing  in  the  bud  every  from  the 
encroachment  on  ecclesiastical  authority,  and  Al 
every  attempt  at  individual  interpretation  of  religious 
doctrines.  For  it  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  men  of  clear 
intellect  should  be  insensible  to  the  obvious  unreasonable- 
ness of  many  of  the  dogmas  that  had  been  consecrated  by 
authority.  But  if  once  permission  were  accorded  to  human 
criticism  and  human  interpretation,  what  other  issue  could 
there  be  than  that  doctrine  upon  doctrine,  and  sect  upon 
sect  should  arise ;  that  theological  principles  should  under- 
go a  total  decomposition,  until  two  men  could  scarcely  be 
found  whose  views  coincided ;  nay,  even  more  than  that, 
that  the  same  man  should  change  his  opinion  with  the 
changing  incidents  of  the  different  periods  of  his  life.  No 
matter  what  might  be  the  plausible  guise  of  the  beginning, 
and  the  ostensibly  cogent  arguments  for  its  necessity,  once 
let  the  decomposition  commence,  and  no  human  power 
could  arrest  it  until  it  had  become  thorough  and  complete. 
Considering  the  prestige,  the  authority,  and  the  mass  of 
fact  to  be  dealt  with,  it  might  take  many  centuries  for 
this  process  to  be  finished,  but  that  that  result  would  at 
length  be  accomplished  no  enlightened  man  could  doubt. 
The  experience  of  the  ancient  European  world  had  shown 
that  in  the  act  of  such  decompositions  there  is  but  little 
danger,  since,  for  the  time  being,  each  sect,  and,  indeed, 
each  individual,  has  a  guiding  rule  of  life.  But  as  soon 
as  the  period  of  secondary  analysis  is  reached  a  crisis  must 
inevitably  ensue,  in  all  probability  involving  not  only 
religion,  but  also  the  social  contract.  And  though,  by  the 


140  GREEK   AGE   OF   INQUIRY.  [CH.  17. 

exercise  of  force  on  the  part  of  the  interests  that  are  dis- 
turbed, aided  by  that  popular  sentiment  which  is  abhorrent 
runner  of  °f  anarchy,  the  crisis  might,  for  a  time,  be  put 
inu-ii-ct  <mt-  off,  it  could  not  be  otherwise  than  that  Europe 
rnuhisTuf  °r  should  be  left  in  that  deplorable  state  which 
faith.  must  result  when  the  intellect  of  a  people  has 

outgrown  its  formulas  of  faith.  A  fearful  condition  to 
contemplate,  for  such  a  dislocation  must  also  affect  political 
relations,  and  necessarily  implies  revolt  against  existing 
law.  Nations  plunged  in  the  abyss  of  irreligion  must, 
necessarily  be  nations  in  anarchy.  For  a  time  their 
tendency  to  explosion  may  be  kept  down  by  the  firm  appli- 
cation of  the  hand  of  power ;  but  this  is  simply  an  an- 
tagonism, it  is  no  cure.  The  social  putrefaction  proceeds, 
working  its  way  downward  into  classes  that  are  lower  and 
lower,  until  at  length  it  involves  the  institutions  that  are 
relied  on  for  its  arrest.  Armies,  the  machinery  of  com- 
pression, once  infected,  the  end  is  at  hand,  but  no  human 
foresight  can  predict  what  the  event  shall  be,  especially  if 
Absolute  ne-  *ne  contemporaneous  ruling  powers  have  either 
co-sity  ofpre-  ignorantly  or  wilfully  neglected  to  prepare 
munitieTibr  society  for  the  inevitable  trial  it  is  about  to 
these  changes,  undergo.  It  is  the  most  solemn  of  all  the  duties 
of  governments,  when  once  they  have  become  aware  of 
such  a  momentous  condition,  to  prepare  the  nations  for 
its  fearful  consequences.  For  this  it  may,  perhaps,  be 
lawful  for  them  to  dissemble  in  a  temporary  manner,  as  it 
is  sometimes  proper  for  a  physician  to  dissemble  with  his 
patient ;  it  may  be  lawful  for  them  even  to  resort  to  the 
use.  of  force,  but  never  should  such  measures  of  doubtful 
correctness  be  adopted  without  others  directed  to  a  pre' 
paration  of  the  mass  of  society  for  the  trials  through  which 
it  is  about  to  pass.  Such,  doubtless,  were  the  profound 
views  of  the  great  Italian  statesmen  of  the  Middle  Agt.-s  ; 
such,  doubtless,  were  the  argiiments  by  which  they  justi- 
fied to  themselves  resistance  against  the  beginning  of  the 
evil — a  course  for  which  Europe  has  too  often  and  unfairly 
condemned  them. 

It  remains  for  us  now  to  review  the  details  presented  in 
the  foregoing  pages  for  the  purpose  of  determining  the 
successive  phases  of  development  through  which  the  Greek 


CH.  IV.]  GREEK   AGE  OF   INQUIRY.  141 

mind  passed.     It  is  not  with  the  truth  or  fallacy  of  theee 
details  that  we  have  to  do,  but  with  their  order  Snmjnary  of 
of  occurrence.      They  are   points  enabling   us  the  preceding 
to  describe   graphically   the  curve   of   Grecian  tl 
intellectual  advance. 

The  starting  point  of  Greek  philosophy  is  physical  and 
geocentral.  The  earth  is  the  grand  object  of  the  universe, 
and,  as  the  necessary  result,  erroneous  ideas  are  entertained 
as  to  the  relations  and  dimensions  of  the  sea  and  air. 
This  philosophy  was  hardly  a  century  old  before  it  began 
to  cosmogonize,  using  the  principles  it  considered  itself 
sure  of.  Long  before  it  was  able  to  get  rid  of  local  ideas, 
such  as  upward  and  downward  in  space,  it  undertook  to 
explain  the  origin  of  the  world. 

But,  as  advances  were  made,  it  was  recognized  that 
creation,  in  its  various  parts,  displays  intention  and 
design,  the  adaptation  of  means  to  secure  proposed  ends. 
This  suggested  a  reasoning  and  voluntary  agency,  like 
that  of  man,  in  the  government  of  the  world  ;  and  from  a 
continual  reference  to  human  habits  and  acts,  Greek  philo- 
sophy passed  through  its  stage  of  anthropoid  conceptions. 

A  little  farther  progress  awakened  suspicions  that  the 
mind  of  man  can  obtain  no  certain  knowledge ;  and  the 
opinion  at  last  prevailed  that  we  have  no  trustworthy 
criterion  of  truth.  In  the  scepticism  thus  setting  in,  the 
approach  to  Oriental  ideas  is  each  successive  instant  more 
and  more  distinct. 

This  period  of  doubt  was  the  immediate  forerunner  of 
more  correct  cosmical  opinions.  The  heliocentric  mechan- 
ism of  the  planetary  system  was  introduced,  the  earth 
deposed  to  a  subordinate  position.  The  doctrines,  both 
physical  and  intellectual,  founded  on  geocentric  ideas, 
were  necessarily  endangered,  and,  since  these  had  connected 
themselves  with  the  prevailing  religious  views,  and  were 
represented  by  important  material  interests,  the  public 
began  to  practise  persecution  and  the  philosophers  hy- 
pocrisy. Pantheistic  notions  of  the  nature  of  the  world 
became  more  distinct,  and,  as  their  necessary  Approach  to 
consequence,  the  doctrines  of  Emanation,  Trans-  Oriental  ideas, 
migration,  and  Absorption  were  entertained.  From  this 
it  is  but  a  step  to  the  suspicion  that  matler,  motion,  and 


142  GREEK   AGE  OF   INQUIRY.  [CH.  TV. 

time  are  phantasms  of  the  imagination — opinions  embodied 
in  the  atomic  theory,  which  asserts  that  atoms  and  space 
alone  exist ;  and  which  became  more  refined  when  it 
recognized  that  atoms  arc  only  mathematical  points ;  and 
still  more  so  when  it  considered  them  as  mere  centres  of 
force.  The  brink  of  Buddhism  was  here  approached. 

As  must  necessarily  ever  be  the  case  where  men  are 
coexisting  in  different  psychical  stages  of  advance,  some 
having  made  a  less,  some  a  greater  intellectual  progress, 
all  these  views  which  we  have  described  successively,  were 
at  last  contemporaneously  entertained.  At  this  point  com- 
menced the  action  of  the  Sophists,  who,  by  setting  the 
doctrines  of  one  school  in  opposition  to  those  of  another, 
and  representing  them  all  as  of  equal  value,  occasioned 
the  destruction  of  them  all,  and  the  philosophy  founded 
on  physical  speculation  came  to  an  end. 

Of  this  phase  of  Greek  intellectual  life,  if  we  compare 
the  beginning  with  the  close,  we  cannot  fail  to  observe 
how  great  is  the  improvement.  The  thoughts 
annor  dealt  with  at  the  later  period  are  intrinsically 
<.f  intellectual  of  a  higher  order  than  those  at  the  outset.  From 
the  puerilities  and  errors  with  which  we  have 
thus  been  occupied,  we  learn  that  there  is  a  definite  mode 
of  progress  for  the  mind  of  man  ;  from  the  history  of  later 
times  we  shall  find  that  it  is  ever  in  the  same  direction. 


CHAPTER  V. 
THE  GREEK  AGE  OF  FAITH. 

RISE   AND   DECLINE   OF  ETHICAL  PHILOSOPHY. 

SOCRATES  reject*  Physical  and  Mathematical  Speculations,  and  assertt 
the  Importance  of  Virtue  and  Morality,  thereby  inaugurating  an  Age 
of  Faith. — His  Life  and  Death. — The  schools  originating  from  his 
Movement  teach  the  Pursuit  of  Pleasure  and  Gratification  of  Self . 

PLATO  founds  the  Academy. — His  three  primal  Principle*. — The  Ex- 
istence i >f  a  personal  God. — Nature  of  the  World  and  the  Soul.— The 
ideal  Theory,  Generals  or  Types. — Reminiscence. — Transmigration. — 
Plato's,  political  Institutions.  —  His  Hepublic.  —  His  Proofs  of  the 
Immortality  of  the  Soul. — Criticism  on  his  Doctrines. 

KISE  OF  THE  SCEPTICS,  who  conduct  the  higher  Analysis  of  Ethical 
Philosophy. — Pyrrho  demonstrates  the  Uncertainty  of  Knowledge. — 
Inevitable  Passage  into  tranquil  Indifference,  Quietude,  and  Irreligion, 
as  recommended  by  Epicurus. — Decomposition  of  the  Socratic  and 
Platonic  System*  in  the  later  Academies. — Their  Errors  and  Duplicities. 
— End  of  the  Greek  Age  of  Faith. 

THE  Sophists  had  brought  on  an  intellectual  anarchy.     It 
is  not  in  the  nature  of  humanity  to  be  contented  Greekphilo. 
with  such  a  state.    Thwarted  in  its  expectations  sophy  on  the 
from  physics,  the  Greek  mind  turned  its  atten-  te 
tion  to  morals.     In  the  progress  of  life,   it  is  but  a  step 
from  the  age  of  Inquiry  to  the  age  of  Faith. 

Socrates,  who  led  the  way  in  this  movement,  was  born 
B.C.  469.     He  exercised  an  influence  in  some  respects  felt 
to  our  times.     Having  experienced  the  unprofitable  results 
arising  from  physical  speculation,  he  set  in  contrast  there 
with  the  solid  advantages  to  be  enjoyed  from  s^^^.  hta 
the  cultivation   of  virtue  and  morality.      His  mode  of 
life  was  a  perpetual  combat  with  the  bophists.  u 
His  manner  of  instruction  was  by  conversation,  in  which. 


144  THE  GREEK  AGE  OK   FAITH.  [CH.  V. 

according  to  the  uniform  testimony  of  all  who  hearcl 
him,  he  singularly  excelled.  He  resorted  to  definitions, 
and  therefrom  drew  deductions,  conveying  his 'argument 
under  the  form  of  a  dialogue.  Unlike  his  predecessors, 
who  sought  for  truth  in  the  investigation  of  outward 
things,  he  turned  his  attention  inward,  asserting  the 
supremacy  of  virtue  and  its  identity  with  knowledge,  and 
the  necessity  of  an  adherence  to  the  strict  principles  of 
justice.  Considering  the  depraved  condition  to  which  the 
Sophists  had  reduced  society,  he  insisted  on  a  change  in 
the  manner  of  education  of  youth,  so  as  to  bring  it  in 
accordance  with  the  principle  that  happiness  is  only  to  bo 
found  in  the  pursuit  of  virtue  and  goodness.  Thus,  there- 
',  fore,  he  completely  substituted  the  moral  for  the  physical, 
I  and  in  this  essentially  consists  the  philosophical  revolution 
he  effected.  He  had  no  school,  properly  speaking,  nor  did 
he  elaborate  any  special  ethical  system  ;  for  to  those  who 
inquired  how  they  should  know  good  from  evil  and  right 
from  wrong,  he  recommended  the  decisions  of  the  laws  of 
The  doctrines  their  country.  It  does  not  appear  that  he  ever 
of  Socrates,  entered  on  any  inquiry  respecting  the  nature  of 
God,  simply  viewing  his  existence  as  a  fact  of  which 
there  was  abundant  and  incontrovertible  proof.  Though 
rejecting  the  crude  religious  ideas  of  his  nation,  and 
totally  opposed  to  anthropomorphism,  he  carefully 
avoided  the  giving  of  public  offence  by  improper  allusions 
to  the  prevailing  superstition ;  nay,  even  as  a  good 
citizen,  he  set  an  example  of  conforming  to  its  require- 
ments. In  his  judgment,  the  fault  of  the  Sophists  con- 
sisted in  this,  that  they  had  subverted  useless  speculation, 
but  had  substituted  for  it  no  scientific  evidence.  Never- 
theless, if  man  did  not  know,  ho  might  believe,  and 
demonstration  might  be  profitably  supplanted  by  faith. 
He  therefore  insisted  on  the  great  doctrines  of  the  immor- 
tality of  the  soul  and  the  government  of  the  world  by 
Providence ;  but  it  is  not  to  be  denied  that  there  arc  plain 
indications,  in  some  of  his  sentiments,  of  a  conviction  that 
the  Supreme  Being  is  the  soul  of  the  world.  He  professed 
that  his  own  chief  wisdom  consisted  in  the  knowledge  of 
his  own  ignorance,  and  dissuaded  his  friends  from  tho 
cultivation  of  mathematics  and  physics,  since  he  affirmed 


C1I.  V.j  THE   GREEK   AGE    OF   FAITH.  145 

that  the  former  leads  to  vain  conclusions,   the  latter  to 
atheism.      In  his  system  everything  turns  on  oppo^,,,^. 
the  explanation  of  terms ;  but  his  processes  of  themathica 
reasoning  are  often  imperfect,  his  conclusions,  andPhysics- 
therefore,  liable  to  be  incorrect.    In  this  way,  he  maintained 
that  no  one  would  knowingly  commit  a  wrong  act,  because 
he  that  knew  a  thing  to  be  good  would  do  it ;  that  it  is 
only  involuntarily  that  the  bad  are  bad ;  that   he  who 
knowingly  tells  a  lie  is  a  better  man  than  he  who  tells  a 
lie  in  ignorance ;    and   that   it   is   right   to   injure   one's 
enemies. 

From  such  a  statement  of  the  philosophy  of  Socrates,  we 
cannot  fail  to  remark  how  superficial  it  must  superficiality 
have  been;  it  perpetually  mistakes  differences  of  his  views. 
of  words  for  distinctions  of  things ;  it  also  possessed  little 
novelty.  The  enforcement  of  morality  cannot  be  regarded, 
as  anything  new,  since  probably  there  has  never  been  an 
age  in  which  good  men  were  not  to  be  found,  who  observed, 
as  their  rule  of  life,  the  maxims  taught  by  Socrates ;  and 
hence  we  may  reasonably  inquire  what  it  was  that  has 
spread  over  the  name  of  this  great  man  such  an  unfading 
lustre,  and  why  he  stands  out  in  such  extraordinary 
prominence  among  the  benefactors  of  his  race. 

Socrates  was  happy  in  two  things :  happy  in  those  who 
recorded  his  life,  and  happy  in  the  circumstances 
of  his  death.  It  is  not  given  to  every  great  man  celebrity  of 
to  have  Xenophon  and  1'lato  for  his  biographers ;  Socrates- 
it  is  not  given  to  every  one  who  has  overpassed  the  limit 
of  life,  and,  in  the  natural  course  of  events,  has  but  a  little 
longer  to  continue,  to  attain  the  crown  of  martyrdom  in 
behalf  of  virtue  and  morality.  In  an  evil  hour  for  the 
glory  of  Athens,  his  countrymen  put  him  to  death.  It 
was  too  late  when  they  awoke  and  saw  that  they  could 
give  no  answer  to  the  voice  of  posterity,  demanding  why 
they  had  perpetrated  this  crime.  With  truth  Socrates 
said,  at  the  close  of  his  noble  speech  to  the  judges  who  had 
condemned  him,  "  It  is  now  time  that  we  depart — I  to  die, 
you  to  live  ;  but  which  has  the  better  destiny  is  unknown, 
to  all  except  God."  The  future  has  resolved  that  doubt. 
For  Socrates  there  was  reserved  the  happier  lot. 

No  little  obscurity  still  remains  as  respects  the  true 
VOL.  I.— 8 


146  THE  GREEK  AGE  OF   FAITH.  ["cil.  V. 

nature  of  this  dark  transaction.  The  articles  of  accusation 
The  ostensible  were  three  :  he  rejects  the  gods  of  his  country  ; 
accusations  he  introduces  new  ones  ;  he  perverts  the  educa- 
"m>  tion  of  youth.  With  truth  might  his  friends  say 
it  was  wonderful  that  he  should  be  accused  of  impiety,  the 
whole  tenor  of  whose  life  was  reverence  for  God  — a  recog- 
nition not  only  of  the  divine  existence,  but  of  the  divine 
superintendence.  "  It  is  only  a  madman,"  he  would  say, 
"  who  imputes  success  in  life  to  human  prudence  ;"  and  as 
to  the  necessity  of  a  right  edtication  for  the  young,  "  It  is 
only  the  wise  who  are  fit  to  govern  men."  We  must  con- 
clude that  the  accusations  were  only  ostensible  or  fictitious, 
and  that  beneath  them  lay  some  reality  which  could 
reconcile  the  Athenians  to  the  perpetration  of  so  great  a 
crime. 

Shall  we  find  in  his  private  life  any  explanation  of  this 
mystery  ?  Unfortunately,  the  details  of  it  which  have 
descended  to  us  are  few.  To  the  investigations  of  classical 
criticism  we  can  scarcely  look  with  any  hope,  for  classical 
criticism  has  hitherto  been  in  a  state  of  singular  innocence, 
60  far  as  the  actual  affairs  of  life  are  concerned.  It  regards 
Athenians  and  Komans  not  as  men  and  women  like  our- 
selves, but  as  the  personages  presented  by  fictitious 
literature,  whose  lives  are  exceptions  to  the  coinmon  laws 
of  human  nature  ;  who  live  in  the  midst  of  scenes  of 
endless  surprises  and  occurrences  ever  bordering  on  the 
marvellous. 

If  we  examine  the  case  according  to  everyday  principles, 
The  character  we  c*11110*  fail  to  remark  that  the  Scarates  of  our 
of Socrau»  in  imagination  is  a  very  different  man  from  the 
Socrates  of  contemporaneous  Athenians.  To  us 
he  appears  a  transcendent  genius,  to  whom  the  great 
names  of  antiquity  render  their  profound  homage ;  a 
martyr  in  behalf  of  principles,  of  which,  if  society  be  devoid, 
life  itself  is  scarcely  of  any  worth,  and  for  the  defence  of 
which  it  is  the  highest  glory  that  a  man  should  be  called 
upon  to  die.  To  them  Socrates  was  no  more  than  an  idle 
lounger  in  the  public  places  and  corners  of  the  streets : 
grotesque,  and  even  repulsive  in  his  person ;  affecting  in  the 
oddities  of  his  walking  and  in  his  appearance  many  of  the 
manners  of  the  mountebank.  Neglecting  the  pursuit  of  aii 


CH.  V.]  THE   GREEK  AGE  OF  FAITH.  147 

honest  calling,  for  his  trade  seems  to  have  been  that  of  a 
stone-cutter,  he  wasted  his  time  in  discoursing  with  such 
youths  as  his  lecherous  countenance  and  satyr-like  person 
could  gather  around  him,  leading  them  astray  from  the 
gods  of  his  country,  the  flimsy  veil  of  his  hypocrisy  being 
too  transparent  to  conceal  his  infidelity.  Nevertheless,  he 
was  a  very  brave  soldier,  as  those  who  served  with  him 
testify.  It  does  not  appear  that  he  was  observant  of  those 
cares  which  by  most  men  are  probably  considered  as  para- 
mount, giving  himself  but  little  concern  for  the  support  of 
his  children  and  wife.  The  good  woman  Xantippe  is,  to 
all  appearance,  one  of  those  characters  who  are  Xantippe  his 
unfairly  judged  of  by  the  world.  Socrates  wife- 
married  her  because  of  her  singular  conversational  powers  ; 
and  though  he  himself,  according  to  universal  testimony, 
possessed  extraordinary  merits  in  that  respect,  he  found  to 
his  cost,  when  too  late,  so  commanding  were  her  excel- 
lencies, that  he  was  altogether  her  inferior.  Among  the 
amusing  instances  related  of  his  domestic  difficulties  were 
the  consequences  of  his  invitations  to  persons  to  dine  with 
him  when  there  was  nothing  in  the  house  wherewith  to 
entertain  them,  a  proceeding  severely  trying  to  the  temper 
of  Xantippe,  whose  cause  would  unquestionably  be  defended 
by  the  matrons  of  any  nation.  It  was  nothing  but  the 
mortification  of  a  high-spirited  woman  at  the  acts  of  a  man 
who  was  too  shiftless  to  have  any  concern  for  his  domestic 
honour.  He  would  not  gratify  her  urgent  entreaties  by 
accepting  from  those  upon  whom  he  lavished  his  time  the 
money  that  was  so  greatly  needed  at  home.  After  his 
condemnation,  she  carried  her  children  with  her  to  his 
prison,  and  was  dismissed  by  him,  as  he  told  his  friends, 
from  his  apprehension  of  her  deep  distress.  To  the  last 
we  see  her  bearing  herself  in  a  manner  honourable  to  a 
woman  and  a  wife.  There  is  surely  something  wrong  in 
a  man's  life  when  the  mother  of  his  children  is  protesting 
against  his  conduct,  and  her  complaints  are  countenanced 
by  the  community.  In  view  of  all  the  incidents  of  the 
history  of  Socrates,  we  can  come  to  no  other  conclusion 
than  that  the  Athenians  regarded  him  as  an  unworthy, 
and  perhaps  troublesome  member  of  society.  Tehre  can  bo 
no  doubt  that  his  trial  and  condemnation  were  connected 


148  THE  GREEK   AGE  OF  FAITH.  [CH.  V. 

with  political  measures.  He  himself  said  that  he  should 
have  suffered  death  previously,  in  the  affair  of 
the  victtaM»r  Leon  of  Salamis,  had  not  the  government  been 
political  ani-  broken  up.  His  bias  was  toward  aristocracy, 
not  toward  democracy.  In  common  with  his 
party,  he  had  been  engaged  in  undertakings  that  could 
not  do  otherwise  than  entail  mortal  animosities  ;  and  it  is 
not  to  be  overlooked  that  his  indictment  was  brought  for- 
ward by  Anytus,  who  was  conspicuous  in  restoring  the 
old  order  of  things.  The  mistake  made  by  the  Athenians 
was  in  applying  a  punishment  altogether  beyond  the  real 
offence,  and  in  adding  thereto  the  persecution  of  those  who 
had  embraced  the  tenets  of  Socrates  by  driving  them  into 
exile.  Not  only  admiration  for  the  memory  of  their  master, 
but  also  a  recollection  of  their  own  wrongs,  made  these 
men  eloquent  eulogists.  Had  Socrates  appeared  to  the 
Athenians  as  he  appears  to  us,  it  is  not  consistent  with 
human  proceedings  that  they  should  have  acted  in  so 
barbarous  and  totally  indefensible  a  manner. 

If  by  the  Daemon  to  whose  suggestions  Socrates  is  said 
rheDa-mon  to  have  listened  anything  more  was  meant 
of  Socrates,  than  conscience,  we  must  infer  that  he  laboured 
under  that  mental  malady  to  which  those  are  liable  who, 
either  through  penury  or  designedly,  submit  to  extreme 
abstinence,  and,  thereby  injuring  the  brain,  fall  into 
hallucination.  Such  cases  are  by  no  means  of  infrequent 
occurrence.  Mohammed  was  affected  in  that  manner. 

After  the  death  of  Socrates  there  aro^e  several  schools 
The  Megnric  professing  to  be  founded  upon  his  principles. 
fxhooi.  The  The  divergences  they  exhibited  when  compared 

wist- should  .   ,  ,,  J         ,  T,,I       j.i  /. 

be  insensible  with  one  another  prove  how  little  thero  was  of 
to  pain.  precision  in  those  principles.  Among  these 
imitators  is  numbered  Euclid  of  Megara,  who  had  been  in 
the  habit  of  incurring  considerable  personal  risk  for  the 
sake  of  listening  to  the  great  teacher,  it  being  a  capital 
offence  for  a  native  of  Megara  to  be  found  in  Athens.  Upon 
their  persecution,  Plato  and  other  disciples  of  Socrates  fled 
to  Euclid,  and  were  well  received  by  him.  His  system  was 
a  mixture  of  the  Eleatic  and  Socratic,  the  ethical  pre- 
ponderating in  his  doctrine.  He  maintained  the  existence 
ut  one  Being,  the  Good,  having  various  aspects— Wisdom, 


CH.  V.]  THE  GREEK  AGE  OF  FAITH.  149 

God,  Eeason,  and  showed  an  inclination  to  the  tendency 
afterward  fully  developed  by  the  Cynical  school  in  his 
dogma  that  the  wise  man  should  be  insensible  to  pain. 

With  the  Megaric  school  is  usually  clas.-ified  the  Cyrenaic 
founded  by  Aristippus.     Like  Socrates,  he  held 
in  disdain  physical  speculations,  and  directed  his  ^bo^p"^ 
attention  to  the  moral.  In  his  opinion,  happiness  sure  is  the 

•    ,      •         i  j     •     j      j    T_  •       i    oijectoi  life. 

consists  in  pleasure  ;  and,  indeed,  he  recognized 
in  pleasure  and  pain  the  criteria  of  external  things.  He 
denied  that  we  can  know  anything  with  certainty,  our 
senses  being  so  liable  to  deceive  us ;  but,  though  we  may 
not  perceive  things  truly,  it  is  true  that  we  perceive. 
With  the  Cyrenaic  school,  pleasure  was  the  great  end  and 
object  of  life. 

To  these  may  be   added  the   Cynical   school,    founded 
by  Antisthenes,  whose  system  is  personal  and  _ 

t     ••     •  -j.  •          v    xo.1        /j.1.          •     j  •  The  Cynical 

terocious  :  it  is  a  battle  ot  the  mind  against  the  school:  a  con- 
body  ;  it  is  a  pursuit  of  pleasure  of  a  mental  kind,  ^h^sand 
corporeal  enjoyment  being  utterly  unworthy  of  a  gratification 
man.      Its  nature   is   very  well  shown  in  the  °' 
character   of  its   founder,   who   abandoned   all   the   con- 
veniences  and  comforts  of  life,  voluntarily  encountering 
poverty  and  exposure  to  the  inclemency  of  the  seasons.  His 
garments  were  of  the  meanest  kind,  his  beard  neglected, 
his  person  filthy,  his  diet  bordering  on  starvation.    To  the 
passers-by  this  ragged  misanthrope  indulged  in  contemptu- 
ous language,  and  offended  them  by  the  indecency  of  his 
gestures.     Abandoned  at  last  by  every  one  except  Diogenes 
of  Sinope,  he  expired  in  extreme  wretchedness.  It  had  been 
a  favourite  doctrine  with  him  that  friendship        . 
and  patriotism  are  altogether  worthless  ;   and  in 
his  last  agony,  Diogenes  asking  him  whether  he  needed  a 
friend,  "  Will  a  friend  release  me  from  this  pain  ?"  he  in- 
quired. Diogenes  handed  him  a  dagger,  saying,  "  This  will." 
"  I  want  to  be  free  from  pain,  but  not  from  life."  Into  such 
degradation  had  philosophy,  as  represented  by  the  Cynical 
school,  fallen,  that  it  may  be  doubted  whether  it  is  right  to 
include  a  man  like  Antisthenes  among  those  who  derive 
their  title  from  their  love  of  wisdom — a  man  who  con- 
demned  the    knowledge    of    reading   and   writing,    who 
depreciated  the  institution  of  marriage,  and  professed  that 


150  THE   GREEK   AGE  OF   FAITH.  [CH.  V. 

he  saw  no   other   advantage   in  philosophy  than  that  it 
enabled  him  to  keep  company  with  himself. 

The  wretched  doctrines  of  Cynicism  were  carried  to  their 
utmost  application  by  Diogenes  of  Sinope.  In  early  life 
Diogenes  of  he  had  been  accustomed  to  luxury  and  ease ; 
fjmope.  but  njs  father,  who  was  a  wealthy  banker,  having 

been  convicted  of  debasing  the  coinage,  Diogenes,  who  in 
some  manner  shared  in  the  disgrace,  was  in  a  very  fit  state 
of  mind  to  embrace  doctrines  implying  a  contempt  for  the 
goods  of  the  world  and  for  the  opinions  of  men.  He  may 
be  considered  as  the  prototype  of  the  hermits  of  a  lain 
period  in  his  attempts  at  the  subjugation  of  the  natural 
appetites  by  means  of  starvation.  Looking  upon  the  body 
as  a  mere  clog  to  the  soul,  he  mortified  it  in  every  possible 
manner,  feeding  it  on  raw  meat  and  leaves,  and  making  it 
dwell  in  a  tub.  He  professed  that  the  nearer  a  man  ap- 
/  preaches  to  suicide  the  nearer  he  approaches  to  virtue.  He 
wore  no  other  dress  than  a  scanty  cloak  ;  a  wallet,  a  stick, 
and  a  drinking-cup  completed  his  equipment :  the  cup  he 
threw  away  as  useless  011  .-eeing  a  boy  take  water  in  the 
hollow  of  his  hand.  It  was  his  delight  to  offend  every 
idea  of  social  decency  by  performing  all  the  acts  of  life 
publicly,  asserting  that  whatever  is  not  improper  in  itself 
ought  to  be  done  openly.  It  is  said  that  his  death,  which 
occurred  in  his  ninetieth  year,  was  in  consequence  of 
devouring  a  neat's  foot  raw.  From  his  carrying  the 
Socratic  notions  to  an  extreme,  he  merits  the  designation 
applied  to  him,  "  the  mad  Socrates."  His  contempt  for  the 
opinions  of  others,  and  his  religious  disbelief,  are  illus- 
trated by  an  incident  related  of  him,  that,  having  in  a 
moment  of  weakness  made  a  promise  to  some  friends  that 
Hisirrcvt-  he  would  offer  a  sacrifice  to  Diana,  he  repaired 
rence.  the  next  day  to  her  temple,  and,  taking  a  louse 
from  his  head,  cracked  it  upon  her  altar. 

\\liat  a  melancholy  illustration  of  the  tendency  of  the 
human  mind  do  these  facts  offer.  What  a  quick,  yet 
inevitable  descent  from  the  morality  of  Socrates.  Selfish- 
Di-ciincof  ness  is  enthroned  ;  friendship  and  patriotism  arc 
morality.  looked  upon  as  the  affairs  of  a  fool :  happy  is  tho 
man  who  stands  in  no  need  of  a  friend ;  still  happier  he 
who  has  not  one.  No  action  is  intrinsically  bad ;  even 


Off.  V.  ]  THE  GREEK   AGE  OF   FAITH.  151 

robbery,  adultery,  sacrilege,  are  only  crimes  by  public 
agreement.  The  sage  will  take  care  how  he  indulges  in 
the  weakness  of  gratitude  or  benevolence,  or  any  other  such 
sickly  sentiment.  If  he  can  find  pleasure,  let  him  enjoy  it ; 
if  pain  is  inflicted  on  him,  let  him  bear  it ;  but,  above  all, 
let  him  remember  that  death  is  just  as  desirable  as  life. 

If  the  physical  speculations  of  Greece  had  ended  in 
sophistry  and  atheism,  ethical  investigations,  it  thus 
appears,  had  borne  no  better  fruit.  Both  systems,  when 
carried  to  their  consequences,  had  been  found  to  be  not 
only  useless  to  society,  but  actually  prejudicial  to  its  be>t 
interests.  As  far  as  could  be  seen,  in  the  times  of  which 
we  are  speaking,  the  prospects  for  civilization  were  dark 
and  discouraging ;  nor  did  it  appear  possible  that  any 
successful  attempts  could  be  made  to  extract  from  philo- 
sophy anything  completely  suitable  to  the  wants  of  man. 
Yet,  in  the  midst  of  these  discreditable  delusions,  one  of 
the  friends  and  disciples  of  Socrates — indeed,  it  may  be 
said,  his  chief  disciple,  Plato,  was  laying  the  foundation  of 
another  system,  which,  though  it  contained  much  that  was 
false  and  more  that  was  vain,  contained  also  some  things 
vigorous  enough  to  descend  to  our  times. 

Plato  was  born  about  B.C.  426.  Antiquity  has  often 
delighted  to  cast  a  halo  of  my thical  glory  around  n 

•:      -?i       ,    •  nvi         •  ill  f  Birth  o«  I'lato. 

its  illustrious  names.  Ihe  immortal  works  of 
this  great  philosopher  seemed  to  entitle  him  to  more  than 
mortal  honours.  A  legend,  into  the  authenticity  of  which 
we  will  abstain  from  inquiring,  asserted  that  his  mother 
Perictione,  a  pure  virgin,  suffered  an  immaculate  concep- 
tion through  the  influences  of  Apollo.  The  god  declared 
to  Ariston,  to  whom  she  was  about  to  be  married,  the 
parentage  of  the  child.  The  wisdom  of  this  great  writer 
may  justify  such  a  noble  descent,  and,  in  some  degree, 
excuse  the  credulity  of  his  admiring  and  affectionate 
disciples,  who  gave  a  ready  ear  to  the  impossible  story. 

To  the  knowledge  acquired  by  Plato  during  the  eight  or 
ten  years  he  had  spent  with  Socrates,  he  added  all  that 
could  be  obtained  from  the  philosophers  of  Egypt,  Cyrene, 
Persia,  and  Tarentum.  With  every  advantage  arising 
from  wealth  and  an  illustrious  parentage,  if  even  it  was 
only  of  an  earthly  kind,  for  he  numbered  Solon  among  his 


152  THE  GREEK  AGE  OP   FAITH.  [CH.  V. 

ancestors,  he  availed  himself  of  the  teaching  of  the  chief 
philosophers  of  the  age,  and  at  length,  returning  to  his 
native  country,  founded  a  school  in  the  grove  of  Hecademus. 
Thrice  during  his  career  as  a  teacher  he  visited  Sicily  on 
iris  education  each  occasion  returning  to  the  retirement  of  his 
»nd  teaching,  academy.  He  attained  the  advanced  age  of  eighty- 
three  years.  It  has  been  given  to  few  men  to  exercise  so 
profound  an  influence  on  the  opinions  of  posterity,  and  yet 
it  is  said  that  during  his  lifetime  Plato  had  no  friends.  He 
quarrelled  with  most  of  those  who  had  been  his  fellow-dis- 
ciples of  Socrates ;  and.  as  might  be  anticipated  from  the 
venerable  age  to  which  he  attained,  and  the  uncertain 
foundation  upon  which  his  doctrines  reposed,  his  opinions 
were  very  often  contradictory,  and  his  philosophy  exhibited 
many  variations.  To  his  doctrines  we  must  now  attend. 
It  was  the  belief  of  Plato  that  matter  is  coeternal  with 
God,  and  that,  indeed,  there  are  three  primary 

The  doctrines  .    ,  ^     -,       -,r    ,  TJ  11    *     •        j. 

of  Plato.  The  principles — God,  Matter,  Ideas;  all  animate 
trinciPiesiary  an(^  inanimate  things  being  fashioned  by  God 
from  matter,  which,  being  capable  of  receiving 
any  impress,  may  be  designated  with  propriety  the 
Mother  of  Forms.  He  held  that  intellect  existed  before 
such  forms  were  produced,  but  not  antecedently  to  matter. 
To  matter  he  imputed  a  refractory  or  resisting  quality, 
the  origin  of  the  disorders  and  disturbances  occurring  in 
the  world ;  he  also  regarded  it  as  the  cause  of  evil,  account- 
ing thereby  for  the  preponderance  of  evil,  which  must  exceed 
the  good  in  proportion  as  matter  exceeds  ideas.  It  is  not 
without  reason,  therefore,  that  Plato  has  been  accused  of 
Magianism.  These  doctrines  are  of  an  Oriental  cast. 

The  existence  of  God,  an  independent  and  personal 
He  asserts  the  ma^er  °f  *ne  world,  he  inferred  from  proofs  of 
existence  of  a  intelligence  and  design  presented  by  natural 
Jod-  objects.  "  All  in  the  world  is  for  the  sake  of 
the  rest,  and  the  places  of  the  single  parts  are  so  ordered 
as  to  subserve  to  the  preservation  and  excellency  of  the 
whole ;  hence  all  things  are  derived  from  the  operation  of 
a  Divine  intellectual  cause."  From  the  marks  of  unity  in 
that  design  he  deduced  the  unity  of  God,  the  Supreme 
Intelligence,  incorporeal,  without  beginning,  end,  or 
change.  His  god  is  the  fashioner  and  father  of  the 


CH.  V.~j  THE   GREEK   AGE   OF   FAITH.  153 

universe,  in  contradistinction  to  impersonal  Nature.  In 
one  sense,  he  taught  that  the  soul  is  immortal  and  im- 
perishable ;  in  another,  he  denied  that  each  individual 
soul  either  has  had  or  will  continue  to  have  an  everlasting 
duration.  From  what  has  been  said  on  a  former  page,  it 
will  be  understood  that  this  psychological  doctrine  is 
essentially  Indian.  His  views  of  the  ancient  condition  of 
and  former  relations  of  the  soul  enabled  Plato  Nature  of  the 
to  introduce  the  celebrated  doctrine  of  Eeminis-  soul- 
cence,  and  to  account  for  what  have  otherwise  been 
termed  innate  ideas.  They  are  the  recollections  of  things 
with  which  the  soul  was  once  familiar. 

The  reason  of  God  contemplates  and  comprehends  the 
exemplars  or  original  models  of  all  natural  forms,  whatever 
they  may  be  ;  for  visible  things  are  only  fleeting  shadows, 
quickly  passing  away ;  ideas  or  exemplars  are  everlasting. 
With  so  much  power  did  he  set  forth  this  piato's  ideal 
theory  of  ideas,  and,  it  must  be  added,  with  so  theory- 
much  obscurity,  that  some  have  asserted  his  belief  in  an 
extramundane  space  in  which  exist  incorporeal  beings,  the 
ideas  or  original  exemplars  of  all  organic  and  inorganic 
forms.  An  illustration  may  remove  some  of  the  obscurity 
of  these  views.  Thus  all  men,  though  they  may  present 
different  appearances  when  compared  with  each  other,  are 
obviously  fashioned  upon  the  same  model,  to  which  they 
all  more  or  less  perfectly  conform.  All  trees  Exemplars  cr 
of  the  same  kind,  though  they  may  differ  from  ^P63- 
one  another,  are,  in  like  manner,  fashioned  upon  a  common 
model,  to  which  they  more  or  less  perfectly  conform. 
To  such  models,  exemplars,  or  types,  Plato  gave  the 
designation  of  Ideas.  Our  knowledge  thereof  is  clearly 
not  obtained  from  the  senses,  but  from  reflection.  Now 
Plato  asserted  that  these  ideas  are  not  only  conceptions  of 
the  mind,  but  actually  perceptions  or  entities  having  a 
real  existence ;  nay,  more,  that  they  are  the  only  real 
existences.  Objects  are  thus  only  material  embodiments 
of  ideas,  and  in  representation  are  not  exact ;  for  corre- 
spondence between  an  object  and  its  model  is  only  so  far  as 
circumstances  will  permit.  Hence  we  can  never  determine 
all  the  properties  or  iunctkms  of  the  idea  from  an  exami- 
nation of  its  imperfect  material  representation,  any  rnoru 

8* 


154  THE   GREEK    AGE   OF   FAITH.  [CH.  V. 

than  we  can  discover  the  character  or  qualities  of  a  man 
from  pictures  of  him,  no  matter  how  excellent  those 
pictures  may  be. 

The  Ideal  theory  of  Plato,  therefore,  teaches  that, 
beyond  this  world  of  delusive  appearances,  this  world  of 
material  objects,  there  is  another  world,  invisible,  eternal, 
and  essentially  true ;  that,  though  we  cannot  trust  our 
senses  for  the  correctness  of  the  indications  they  yield, 
there  are  other  impressions  upon  which  we  may  fall  back 
Doctrine  of  to  aid  us  in  coming  to  the  truth,  the  reminis- 
Reminiscence.  cenccs  or  recollections  still  abiding  in  the  soul  of 
the  things  it  formerly  knew,  either  in  the  realm  of  pure 
ideas,  or  in  the  states  of  former  lift;  through  which  it  has 
passed.  For  Plato  says  that  there  are  souls  which,  in 
periods  of  many  thousand  years,  have  successively  trans- 
Reroiiections  migrated  through  bodies  of  various  kinds.  Of 
during  trans-  these  various  conditions  they  retain  a  recollec- 
tion, more  faintly  or  vividly,  as  the  case  may 
be.  Ideas  seeming  to  be  implanted  in  the  human  mind, 
but  certainly  never  communicated  to  us  by  the  senses,  are 
derived  from  those  former  states.  If  this  recollection  of 
ancient  events  and  conditions  were  absolutely  precise  and 
correct,  then  man  would  have  an  innate  means  for  deter- 
mining the  tnith.  But  such  reminiscences  being,  in  their 
nature,  imperfect  and  uncertain,  wo  never  can  attain  to 
absolute  truth.  With  1'lato,  the  Beautiful  is  the  perfect 
image  of  the  true.  Love  is  the  desire  of  the  soul  for 
Beauty,  the  attraction  of  like  for  like,  the  longing  of  the 
divinity  within  us  for  the  divinity  beyond  us  ;  and  the 
Good,  which  is  beauty,  truth,  justice,  is  God — God  in  his 
abstract  state. 

From  the  Platonic  system  it  therefore  followed  that 
science  is  impossible  to  man,  and  possible  only  to  God  ; 
that,  however,  recollecting  our  origin,  we  ought  not  to 
despair,  but  elevate  our  intellectual  aim  as  high  as  we 
may  ;  that  all  knowledge  is  not  attributable  to  our  present 
senses  ;  for,  if  that  were  the  case,  all  men  would  be  equally 
wise,  their  senses  being  equal  in  acuteness ;  but  a  very 
large  portion,  and  by  far  the  surest  portion,  is  derived 
from  reminiscence  of  our  former  states ;  that  each  indi- 
vidual soul  is  an  idea ;  and  that,  of  ideas  generally,  tho 


CH.  V.J  THE   GREEK   AGE   OF    FAITH.  155 

lower  are  held  together  by  the  higher,  and  hence,  finally 
by  one  which  is  supreme  ;  that  God  is  the  sum  GO<I  is  the 
of  ideas,  and  is  therefore  eternal  and  unchange-  fcum  of  ideas- 
able,  the  sensuous  conditions  of  time  and  space  having  no 
relation  to  him,  and  being  inapplicable  in  any  concep- 
tion of  his  attributes  ;  that  he  is  the  measure  of  all  things, 
and  not  man,  as  Protagoras  supposed  ;  that  the  universe  is 
a  type  of  him ;  that  matter  itself  is  an  absolute  negation, 
and  is  the  same  as  space  ;  that  the  forms  presented  by  our 
senses  are  unsubstantial  shadows,  and  no  reality ;  that,  so 
far  from  there  being  an  infinity  of  worlds,  there  is  but 
one,  which,  as  the  work  of  God,  is  neither  Thenatureof 
subject  to  age  nor  decay,  and  that  it  consists  of  ihe  world  and 
a  body  and  a  soul ;  in  another  respect  it  may  be  &1 
said  to  be  composed  of  fire  and  earth,  which  can  only  be 
made  to  cohere  through  the  intermedium  of  air  and  water, 
and  hence  the  necessity  of  the  existence  of  the  four 
elements ;  that  of  geometrical  forms,  the  pyramid  corre- 
sponds to  fire,  the  cube  to  earth,  the  octahedron  to  air, 
these  forms  being  produced  from  triangles  connected  by 
certain  numerical  ratios ;  that  the  entire  sum  of  vitality 
is  divided  by  God  into  seven  parts,  answering  to  the 
divisions  of  the  musical  octave,  or  to  the  seven  planets ; 
that  the  world  is  an  animal  having  within  it  a  soul ;  for 
man  is  warm,  and  so  is  the  world  ;  man  is  made  of  various 
elements,  and  so  is  the  world  ;  and,  as  the  body  of  man 
has  a  soul,  so  too  must  the  world  have  one  ;  that  there  is 
a  race  of  created,  generated,  and  visible  gods,  who  must 
be  distinguished  from  the  eternal,  their  bodies  being 
composed  for  the  most  part  of  fire,  their  shape  spherical ; 
that  the  earth  is  the  oldest  and  first  of  the  starry  bodies, 
its  place  being  in  the  centre  of  the  universe,  or  in  the 
axis  thereof,  where  it  remains,  balanced  by  its  own 
equilibrium ;  that  perhaps  it  is  an  ensouled  being  and  a 
generated  god ;  that  the  mortal  races  are  three,  answering 
to  Earth,  Air,  and  Water  ;  that  the  male  man  was  the  first 
made  of  mortals,  and  that  from  him  the  female,  and 
beasts,  and  birds,  and  fishes  issued  forth ;  that  the  supe- 
riority of  man  depends  upon  his  being  a  religious  animal ; 
that  each  mortal  consists  of  two  portions,  a  soul  and  a 
body — their  separation  constitutes  death  ;  that  of  the  soul 


15G  THE  GREEK   AGE   OF   FAITH.  [dl.  V. 

there  are  two  primitive  component  parts,  a  mortal  and  an 
immortal,  the  one  being  made  by  the  created  gods,  and 
Triple  con-  ^he  other  by  the  Supreme ;  that,  for  the  purpose 
stitutionof  of  uniting  these  parts  together,  it  is  necessary 
that  there  should  be  an  intermedium,  and  that 
this  is  the  daemonic  portion  or  spirit ;  that  our  mental 
struggles  arise  from  this  triple  constitution  of  Appetite, 
Spirit,  and  Reason ;  that  Reason  alone  is  immortal,  and 
the  others  die ;  that  the  number  of  souls  in  the  universe 
is  invariable  or  constant ;  that  the  sentiment  of  pre- 
existence  proves  the  soul  to  have  existed  before  the  body ; 
that,  since  the  soul  is  the  cause  of  motion,  it  can  neither 
be  produced  nor  decay,  else  all  motion  must  eventually 
Transmigra-  cease  >  that,  as  to  the  condition  of  departed 
tionand  souls,  they  hover  as  shades  around  the  graves, 
wards  aTd  pining  for  restoration  to  their  lifeless  bodies,  or 
punishments,  migrating  through  various  human  or  brute 
shapes,  but  that  an  uuembodied  life  in  tjod  is  reserved  for 
the  virtuous  philosopher ;  that  valour  is  nothing  but 
knowledge,  and  virtue  a  knowledge  of  good ;  that  the 
soul,  on  entering  the  body,  is  irrational  or  in  a  trance, 
and  that  the  god,  the  star  who  formed  its  created  part, 
influences  its  career,  and  hence  its  fortunes  may  be 
predicted  by  astrological  computations  ;  that  there  are 
future  rewards  and  punishments,  a  residence  being  ap- 
pointed for  the  righteous  in  his  kindred  star ;  for  those 
whose  lives  have  been  less  pure  there  is  a  second  birth 
under  the  form  of  a  woman,  and,  if  evil  courses  are  still 
persisted  in,  successive  transmigrations  through  various 
brutes  are  in  reserve — the  frivolous  passing  into  birds, 
the  unphilosophical  into  beasts,  the  ignorant  into  fishes ; 
that  the  world  undergoes  periodical  revolutions  by  fire  and 
water,  its  destructions  and  reproductions  depending  upon 
the  coincidences  of  the  stars.  Of  Plato's  views  of  human 
physiology  I  can  offer  no  better  statement  than  the 
rbe  physio-  following  from  Ritter  :  "  All  in  the  human  body 
logy  «r  i-iito.  is  iormed  for  the  sake  of  the  Reason,  after  certain 
determinate  ends.  Accordingly,  first  of  all,  a  seat  must 
be  provided  for  the  god-like  portion  of  the  soul,  the  head, 
viz.,  which  is  round,  and  similar  to  the  perfect  shape  of 
the  whole,  furnished  with  the  organs  of  cognition,  slightly 


CH.  V.]  THE   GREEK    AGE   OF   FAITH.  157 

covered  with  flesh,  which  impedes  the  senses.  To  the 
head  is  given  the  direction  of  the  whole  frame,  hence  its 
position  at  the  top ;  and,  since  the  animal  creation 
possesses  all  the  six  irregular  motions,  and  the  head  ought 
not  to  roll  upon  the  ground,  the  human  form  is  long,  with 
legs  for  walking  and  arms  for  serving  the  body,  and  the 
anterior  part  is  fashioned  differently  from  the  posterior. 
Now,  the  reason  being  seated  in  the  head,  the  spirit  or 
irascible  soul  has  its  seat  in  the  breast,  under  the  head, 
in  order  that  it  may  be  within  call  and  command  of  the 
Eeason,  but  yet  separated  from  the  head  by  the  neck,  that 
it  might  not  mix  with  it.  The  concupiscible  has  likewise 
its  particular  seat  in  the  lower  part  of  the  trunk,  the 
abdomen,  separated  by  the  diaphragm  from  that  of  the 
irascible,  since  it  is  destined,  being  separate  from  both, 
to  be  governed  and  held  in  order  both  by  the  spirit  and 
the  Eeason.  For  this  end  God  has  given  it  a  watch,  the 
liver,  which  is  dense,  smooth,  and  shining,  and,  containing 
in  combination  both  bitter  and  sweet,  is  fitted  to  receive 
and  reflect,  as  a  mirror,  the  images  of  thoughts.  When- 
ever the  Eeason  disapproves,  it  checks  inordinate  desires  by 
its  bitterness,  and,  on  the  other  hand,  when  it  approves, 
all  is  soothed  into  gentle  repose  by  its  sweetness ;  more- 
over, in  sleep,  in  sickness,  or  in  inspiration  it  becomes 
prophetic,  so  that  even  the  vilest  portion  of  the  body  is  in 
a  certain  degree  participant  of  truth.  In  other  respects 
the  lower  portion  of  the  trunk  is  fashioned  with  equal 
adaptation  for  the  ends  it  has  to  serve.  The  spleen  is 
placed  on  the  left  side  of  the  liver,  in  order  to  secrete  and 
carry  off  the  impurities  which  the  diseases  of  the  body 
might  produce  and  accumulate.  The  intestines  are  coiled 
many  times,  in  order  that  the  food  may  not  pass  too  quickly 
through  the  body,  and  so  occasion  again  an  immoderate 
desire  for  more ;  for  such  a  constant  appetite  would  render 
the  pursuit  of  philosophy  impossible,  and  make  man  dis- 
obedient to  the  commands  of  the  divinity  within  him." 

The  reader  will  gather  from  the  preceding  paragraph  how 
much  of  wisdom  and  of  folly,  of  knowledge  and  of  igno- 
rance, the  doctrines  of  Plato  present.  I  may  be  permitted 
to  continue  this  analysis  of  his  writings  a  little  farther, 
with  the  intention  of  exhibiting  the  manner  in.  which  he 


158  THE   GREEK   AGE   OF   FAITIT.  [CH.  V. 

carried  his  views  into  practice ;  for  Plato  asserted  that, 
His  ethical  though  the  supreme  good  is  unattainable  by  our 
deas.  reason,  we  must  try  to  resemble  God  as  far  as 

it  is  possible  for  the  changeable  to  copy  the  eternal ; 
remembering  that  pleasure  is  not  the  end  of  man,  and, 
though  the  sensual  part  of  the  soul  dwells  on  eating  and 
drinking,  riches  and  pleasure,  and  the  spiritual  on  worldly 
honours  and  distinctions,  the  reason  is  devoted  to  know- 
ledge. Pleasure,  therefore,  cannot  be  attributed  to  the 
gods,  though  knowledge  may ;  pleasure,  which  is  not  a 
good  in  itself,  but  only  a  means  thereto.  Each  of  the 
three  parts  of  the  soul  lias  its  own  appropriate  virtue,  that 
of  reason  being  wisdom  ;  that  of  the  spirit,  courage  ;  that 
of  the  appetite,  temperance ;  and  for  the  sake  of  perfection, 
justice  is  added  for  the  mutual  regulation  of  the  other 
three. 

In  carrying  his  ethical  conceptions  into  practice,  Plato 
His  TO  d  i118^8^8  that  the  state  is  everything,  and  that 
pjiitic.u  in-  what  is  in  opposition  to  it  ought  to  be  destroyed. 
Btuutions.  Ho  Denies  the  right  of  property  ;  strikes  at  the 
very  existence  of  the  family,  pressing  his  doctrines 
to  such  an  extreme  as  to  consider  women  as  public 
property,  to  be  used  for  the  purposes  of  the  state ;  he 
teaches  that  education  should  be  a  governmental  duty, 
and  that  religion  must  be  absolutely  subjected  to  the 
politician ;  that  children  do  not  belong  to  their  parents, 
but  to  the  state  ;  that  the  aim  of  government  should  not 
be  the  happiness  of  the  individual,  but  that  of  the  whole ; 
and  that  men  are  to  be  considered  not  as  men,  but  as 
elements  of  the  state,  a  perfect  subject  differing  from  a 
slave  only  in  this,  that,  he  has  the  state  for  his  master. 
He  recommends  the  exposure  of  deformed  and  sickly 
infants,  and  requires  every  citizen  to  be  initiated  into 
every  species  of  falsehood  and  fraud.  Distinguishing 
between  mere  social  unions  and  true  polities,  and  insisting 
that  there  should  be  an  analogy  between  the  state  and  the 
soul  as  respects  triple  constitution,  he  establishes  a  division 
of  ruler,  warriors,  and  labourers,  preferring,  therefore,  a 
monarchy  reposing  on  aristocracy,  particularly  of  talent. 
Though  he  considers  music  essential  to  education,  his 
opinion  of  the  fine  arts  is  so  low  that  he  would  admit 


CH.  V.]  THE   GREEK  AGE  OF  FAITH.  159 

into  his  state  painters  and  musicians  only  under  severe 
restrictions,  or  not  at  all.  It  was  for  the  sake  of  having 
this  chimerical  republic  realized  in  Sicily  that  The  Republic 
he  made  a  journey  to  Dionysius  ;  and  it  may  be  of  1>lato- 
added  that  it  was  well  for  those  whom  he  hoped  to  have 
subjected  to  the  experiment  that  his  wild  and  visionary 
scheme  was  never  permitted  to  be  carried  into  effect.  In 
our  times  extravagant  social  plans  have  been  proposed, 
and  some  have  been  attempted ;  but  we  have  witnessed 
nothing  so  absurd  as  this  vaunted  republic  of  Plato.  It 
shows  a  surprising  ignorance  of  the  acts  and  wants  of 
man  in  his  social  condition. 

Some  of  the  more  important  doctrines  of  Plato  are 
worthy  of  further  reflection.  I  shall  therefore  detain 
the  reader  a  short  time  to  offer  a  few  remarks  upon  them. 

It  was  a  beautiful  conception  of  this  philosophy  that 
ideas  are  connected  together  by  others  of  a  higher  (;nnideur  of 
order,  and  these,  in  their  turn,  by  others  still  Plato's  con- 
higher,  their  generality  and  power  increasing  as  cePtIonsolGo<l 
we  ascend,  until  finally  a  culminating  point  is  reached — a 
last,  a  supreme,  an  all- ruling  idea,  which  is  God.  Approach- 
ing in  this  elevated  manner  to  the  doctrine  of  an  Almighty 
Being,  we  are  free  from  those  fallacies  we  are  otherwise 
liable  to  fall  into  when  we  mingle  notions  derived  from 
time  and  space  with  the  attributes  of  God  ;  we  also  avoid 
those  obscurities  necessarily  encountered  when  we  attempt 
the  consideration  of  the  illimitable  and  eternal. 

Plato's  views  of  the  immortality  of  the  soul  offer  a 
striking  contrast  to  those  of  the  popular  philo-  ami  of  ihe 
sophy  and  superstition  of  his  time.  They  recall,  soul- 
in  many  respects,  the  doctrines  of  India.  In  Greece,  those 
who  held  the  most  enlarged  views  entertained  what  might 
be  termed  a  doctrine  of  semi-immortality.  They  looked  for 
a  continuance  of  the  soul  in  an  endless  futurity,  but  gave 
themselves  no  concern  about  the  eternity  which  is  past. 
But  Plato  considered  the  soul  as  having  already  eternally 
existed  the  present  life  being  only  a  moment  in  our 
career ;  he  looked  forward  with  an  undoubting  faith  to 
the  changes  through  which  we  must  hereafter  pass.  As 
sparks  issue  forth  from  a  flame,  *o  doubtless  to  hia 
imagination  did  the  soul  of  man  issue  forth  from  the  soul 


160  THE  UREEK  AGK  OF  FAITH.  ( CH.  V. 

of  the  world.  Innate  ideas  and  the  sentiment  of  pre- 
The  uenti-  existence  indicate  our  past  life.  By  the  latter 
ment  ofpre-  is  meant  that  on  some  occasion  perhaps  of  trivial 

concern,  or  perhaps  in  some  momentous  event, 
it  suddenly  occurs  to  us  that  we  have  been  in  like  circum- 
stances, and  surrounded  by  the  things  at  that  instant 
present  on  some  other  occasion  before ;  but  the  recollec- 
tion, though  forcibly  impressing  us  with  surprise,  is 
misty  and  confused.  With  Plato  shall  we  say  it  was  in  one 
of  our  prior  states  of  existence,  and  the  long-forgotten 
transactions  are  now  suddenly  flashing  upon  us  ? 

But  1'lato  did  not  know  the  double  structure  and  the 
double  action  of  the  brain  of  man ;  he  did  not  remember 
that  the  mind  may  lose  all  recognition  of  the  lapse  of 
tim3,  and,  with  equal  facility,  compress  into  the  twinkling 
of  an  eye  events  so  numerous  that  for  their  occurrence 

days  and  even  years  would  seem  to  be  required ; 

But  this  *  i       /,      ,    .,  ,         1  . 

arises  from  or,  conversely,  that  it  can  take  a  single,  a  simple 
the  anatomi-  idea  which  one  would  suppose  might  be  disposed 

cal  construe-  '  a   an  °  •*     i-i    ,• 

tionofthe  of  in  a  moment,  and  dwell  upon  it,  dilating  or 
swelling  it  out,  until  all  the  hours  of  a  long 
night  are  consumed.  Of  the  truth  of  these  singular  effects 
we  have  not  only  such  testimony  as  that  offered  by  those 
who  have  been  restored  from  death  by  drowning,  who 
describe  the  flood  of  memory  rushing  upon  them  in  the 
last  moment  of  their  mortal  agony,  the  long  train  of  all 
the  affairs  in  which  they  have  borne  a  part  seen  in  an 
instant,  as  we  see  the  landscape,  with  all  its  various 
objects,  by  a  flash  of  lightning  at  night,  and  that  with 
appalling  distinctness,  but  also  from  our  own  experience 
in  our  dreams.  It  is  shown  in  my  Physiology  how  the 
phenomena  of  the  sentiment  of  pre-existence  may,  upon 
these  principles,  be  explained,  each  hemisphere  of  the 
brain  thinking  for  itself,  and  the  mind  deluded  as  respects 
the  lapse  of  time,  mistaking  these  simultaneous  actions 
for  successive  ones,  and  referring  one  of  the  two  impres 
sions  to  an  indistinct  and  misty  past.  To  Plato  such 
facts  as  these  afforded  copious  proofs  of  the  prior  existence 
of  the  soul,  and  strong  foundations  for  a  faith  in  its  future 
life. 

Thus  Plato's  doctrine  of  the  immortality  of  the  soul 


C1I.  V.J  THE   GREEK   AGE   OF   FAITH.  161 

implies  a  donble  immortality ;  the  past  eternity,  as  well 
as  that  to  come,  falls  within  its  scope.  In  the  national 
superstition  of  his  time,  the  spiritual  principle 

.,,  The  double 

seemed  to  arise  without  author  cr  generator,  immortality, 
finding  its  chance  residence  in  the  tabernacle  |'ast  and 
of  the  body,  growing  with  its  growth  and 
strengthening  with  its  strength,  acquiring  for  each  period 
of  life  a  correspondence  of  form  and  of  feature  with  its 
companion  the  body,  successively  assuming  the  appearance 
of  the  infant,  the  youth,  the  adult,  the  white-bearded 
patriarch.  The  shade  who  wandered  in  the  Stygian 
fields,  or  stood  before  the  tribunal  of  Minos  to  receive  his 
doom,  was  thought  to  correspond  in  aspect  with  the 
aspect  of  the  body  at  death.  It  was  thus  that  Ulysses 
recognized  the  forms  of  Patroclus  and  Achilles,  and  other 
heroes  of  the  ten  years'  siege ;  it  was  thus  that  the 
peasant  recognized  the  ghost  of  his  enemy  or  friend.  As 
a  matter  of  superstition,  these  notions  had  their  use,  but 
in  a  philosophical  sense  it  is  impossible  to  conceive  any- 
thing more  defective. 

Man  differs  from  a  lifeless  body  or  a  brute  in  this,  that 
it  is  not  with  the  present  moment  alone  that  „  ,          , 

-i      i        -r-t          i       i  i  i  Relations  of 

he  has  to  deal,  ror  the  brute  the  past,  when  the  past  and 
gone,  is  clean  gone  for  ever;  and  the  future,  luturetoman- 
before  it  approaches,  is  as  if  it  were  never  to  be.  Man, 
by  his  recollection,  makes  the  past  a  part  of  the  present, 
and  his  foreknowledge  adds  the  future  thereto,  thereby 
•uniting  the  three  in  one. 

Some  of  the   illustrations  commonly  given   of  Plato's 
Ideal  theory  may  also  be  instructively  used  for  0^^^,  on 
showing   the   manner   in   which   his   facts   are  the  ideal 
dealt  with  by  the  methods  of  modern  science.  theory< 
Thus  Plato  would   say  that  there  is  contained  in  every 
acorn  the  ideal  type  of  an  oak,  in  accordance  with  which 
as  soon  as  suitable  circumstances  occur,  the  acorn  will 
develop  itself  into  an  oak,  and  into  no  other  tree.      In  the 
act  of  development  of  such  a  seed  into  its  final  growth 
there  are,  therefore,  two  things  demanding  attention,  the 
intrinsic  character  of  the  seed   and  the   external  forces 
acting  upon   it.      The  Platonic  doctrine  draws   such  a 
distinction  emphatically ;  its  essential  purpose  is  to  assert 


162  THE   GREEK   AGE   OF   FAITH.  [CH.  V. 

the  absolute  existence  and  independence  of  that  innate 
type  and  its  imperishability.  Though  it  requires  the 
agency  of  external  circumstances  for  its  complete  realiza- 
tion, its  being  is  altogether  irrespective  of  them.  There 
are,  therefore,  in  sui-h  a  case,  two  elements  concerned — an 
internal  and  an  external.  A  like  duality  is  perceived  in 
many  other  physiological  instances,  as  in  the  relationship 
of  mind  and  matter,  thought  and  sensation.  It  is  the  iiim 
of  the  Platonic  philosophy  to  magnify  the  internal  at  the 
expense  of  the  external  in  the  case  of  man,  thereby 
asserting  the  absolute  supremacy  of  intellect ;  thi<  being 
the  particular  in  which  man  is  distinguished  from  the 
brutes  and  lower  organisms,  in  whom  the  external 
relatively  predominates.  The  development  of  any  such 
organism,  be  it  plant  or  animal,  is  therefore  nothing  but  a 
manifestation  of  the  Divine  idea  of  Platonism.  Many 
instances  of  natural  history  offer  striking  illustrations,  as 
when  that  which  might  have  been  a  branch  is  developed 
into  a  flower,  the  parts  thereof  showing  a  disposition  to 
arrange  themselves  by  fives  or  by  threes.  The  persistency 
with  which  this  occurs  in  organisms  of  the  same  species, 
is,  in  the  Platonic  interpretation,  a  proof  that,  though 
individuals  may  perish,  the  idea  is  immortal.  How  el>e, 
in  this  manner,  could  the  like  extricate  itself  from  the 
unlike ;  the  one  deliver  itself  from,  and  make  itself 
manifest  among  the  many? 

Such  ia  an  in-ttnce  of  Mate's  views;  but  the  very 
illustration,  thus  serving  to  bring  them  *.o  explicitly 
before  us,  may  teach  us  another,  and,  pei'haps,  a  more 
correct  doctrine.  For,  considering  the  duality  pre-ented 
by  such  cases,  the  internal  and  external,  the  immortal 
hidden  type  and  the  power  acting  upon  it  without,  the 
character  and  the  circumstances,  may  we  not  pertinently 
inquire  by  what  authority  does  Plato  diminish  the 
influence  of  the  latter  and  enhance  the  value  of  the 
former?  Why  are  facts  to  be  burdened  with  such 
hypothetical  creations,  when  it  is  obvious  that  a  much 
simpler  explanation  is  sufficient?  Let  us  admit,  JIB  our 
best  physiological  views  direct,  that  the  starting-point  of 
every  organism,  low  or  high,  vegetable  or  animal,  or 
whatever  else,  is  a  simple  cell,  the  manner  of  development 


CH.  V.]  THE  GREEK   AQE  OF   FAITH.  163 

of  which  depends  altogether  on  the  circumstances  and 
influences  to  which  it  is  exposed  ;  that,  to  long  as  those 
circumstances  are  the  same  the  resulting  form  will  be  the 
same,  and  that  as  soon  as  those  circumstances  differ  the 
resulting  form  differs  too.  The  offspring  is  like  its  parent, 
not  because  it  includes  an  immortal  typical  form,  but 
because  it  is  exposed  in  development  to  the  same  con- 
ditions as  was  its  parent.  Elsewhere  1  have  endeavoured 
to  show  that  we  must  acknowledge  this  absolute  dominion 
of  physical  agents  over  organic  forms  as  the  fundamental 
principle  in  all  the  sciences  of  organization;  indeed,  the 
main  object  of  my  work  oil  Physiology  was  to  enforce  this 
very  doctrine.  But  such  a  doctrine  is  altogether  inconsis- 
tent with  the  Ideal  theory  of  Platonism.  It  is  no  latent 
imperishable  type  existing  from  eternity  that  is  domina- 
ting in  fcuch  developments,  but  they  take  place  as  the  issue 
of  a  resistless  law,  variety  being  possible  under  variation 
of  environment.  Hence  we  may  perhaps  excuse  ourselves 
from  that  suprasensual  world  in  which  reside  typical 
forms,  univert-als,  ideas  of  created  things,  declining  this 
complex  machinery  of  Platonism,  and  substituting  for  it 
a  simple  notion  of  law.  Nor  shall  we  find,  if  from  this 
starting-point  we  direct  our  thoughts  upward,  as  1'lato 
did  from  subordinate  ideas  to  the  fir.-t  idea,  anything 
incompatible  with  the  noble  conclusion  to  which  he  event- 
ually came,  anything  incompatible  with  the  majesty  of  God, 
whose  existence  and  attributes  may  be  asserted  with  more 
precision  and  distinctness  from  considerations  of  the  opera- 
tion of  immutable  law  than  they  can  be  from  the  starting- 
point  of  fantastic,  imaginary,  ideal  forms. 

We  have  seen  how  the  pre-Socratic  philosophy  ended  in 
the  Sophists ;  we  have  now  to  see  how  the  post-Socratic 
ended  in  the  Sceptics.  Again  was  repeated  the  same  result 
exhibited  in  former  times,  that  the  doctrines  of  Rlsenfthe 
the  different  schools,  even  those  supposed  to  be  sceptics. 
matters  of  absolute  demonstration,  were  not  only  essentially 
different,  but  in  contradiction  to  one  another.  Again, 
therefore,  the  opinion  was  resumed  that  the  intellect  of 
man  possesses  no  criterion  of  truth,  being  neither  able  to 
distinguish  among  the  contradictions  of  the  impressions  of 
the  senses,  nor  to  judge  of  the  correctness  of  philosophical 


164  THE  GREEK   AGE   OF  FAITH.  [CH.  V, 

deductions,  nor  even  to  determine  the  intrinsic  morality 
of  acts.  And,  if  there  be  no  criterion  of  truth,  there  can 
be  no  certain  ground  of  science,  and  there  remains  nothing 
for  us  but  doubt.  Such  was  the  conclusion  to  which 
Pyrrho,  the  founder  of  the  Sceptics,  came.  He  lived  about 
B.C.  300.  His  philosophical  doctrine  of  the  necessity  of 
suspending  or  refusing  OUT  assent  from  want  of  a  criterion 
of  judgment  led  by  a  natural  transition  to  the  moral 
doctrine  that  virtue  and  happiness  consist  in  perfect 
quiescence  or  freedom  from  all  mental  perturbation.  This 
doctrine,  it  is  said,  he  had  learned  in  India  from  the  Brail- 
mans,  whither  he  had  been  in  the  expedition  of  Alexander. 
On  his  return  to  Europe  he  taught  these  views  in  his 
school  at  Elis ;  but  Greek  philosophy,  in  its  own  order 
of  advancement,  was  verging  on  the  discovery  of  these 
conclusions. 

The  Sceptical  school  was  thus  founded  on  the  assertion 
that  man  can  never  ascertain  the  true  among  phenomena, 
and  therefore  can  never  know  whether  things  are  in 
accordance  or  discordance  with  their  appearances,  for  the 
same  object  appears  differently  to  us  in  different  positions 
and  at  different  times.  Doubtless  it  also  appears  differently 
to  various  individuals.  Among  such  appearances,  how 
shall  we  select  the  true  one,  and,  if  we  make  a  selection, 
how  shall  we  be  absolutely  certain  that  we  are  right  ? 
Moreover,  the  properties  we  impute  to  things,  such  as 
colour,  smell,  taste,  hardness,  and  the  like,  are  dependent 
upon  our  senses  ;  but  we  very  well  know  that  our  senses 
are  perpetually  yielding  to  us  contradictory  indications, 
and  it  is  in  vain  that  we  expect  Reason  to  enable 
analysis'!*  us  to  distinguish  with  correctness,  or  furnish  us 
i™^1  pbi"  a  criterion  of  the  truth.  The  Sceptical  school 
thus  made  use  of  the  weapon  which  the  Sophists 
had  so  destructively  employed,  directing  it,  however, 
chiefly  against  ethics.  But  let  us  ascend  a  step  higher. 
If  wo  rely  upon  Reason,  how  do  wo  know  that  Reason  itself 
is  trustworthy?  Do  we  not  want  some  criterion  for  it  ?  And, 
even  if  such  a  criterion  existed,  must  we  not  have  for  it,  in 
its  turn,  some  higher  criterion?  The  Sceptic  thus  justified 
his  assertion  that  to  man  there  is  no  criterion  of  truth. 

In  accordance  with  these  principles,  the  Sceptics  denied 


CH.  V.J  THE  GREEK  AGE  OF  FAITH.  165 

that  we  can  ever  attain  to  a  knowledge  of  existence  from  a 
knowledge  of  phenomena.  They  carried  their  The  doctrines 
doubt  to  such  an  extreme  as  to  assert  that  we  of  pJ'irll°- 
can  never  know  the  truth  of  anything  that  we  have 
asserted,  no,  not  even  the  truth  of  this  very  assertion 
itself.  "  We  assert  nothing,"  said  they ;  "  no,  not  even 
that  we  assert  nothing."  They  declared  that  the  system  of 
induction  is  at  best  only  a  system  of  probability,  for  an 
induction  can  only  be  certain  when  every  one  and  all  of 
the  individual  things  have  been  examined  and  demon- 
strated to  agree  with  the  universal.  If  one  NO  certainty 
single  exception  among  myriads  of  examples  be  in  knowledge, 
discovered,  the  induction  is  destroyed.  But  how  shall  we 
be  sure,  in  any  one  case,  that  we  have  examined  all  the 
individuals?  therefore  we  must  ever  doubt.  As  to  the 
method  of  definitions,  it  is  clear  that  it  is  altogether 
useless ;  for,  if  we  are  ignorant  of  a  thing,  we  cannot 
define  it,  and  if  we  know  a  thing,  a  definition  adds  nothing 
to  our  knowledge.  In  thus  destroying  definitions  and 
inductions  they  destroyed  all  philosophical  method. 

But  if  there  be  this  impossibility  of  attaining  know- 
ledge, what  is  the  use  of  man  giving  himself  any  trouble 
about  the  matter  ?  Is  it  not  best  to  accept  life  as  it  comes, 
and  enjoy  pleasure  while  he  may  ?  And  this  is  what 
Epicurus,  B.C.  342,  had  already  advised  men  to  do.  Like 
Socrates,  he  disparages  science,  and  looks  upon  pleasure 
as  the  main  object  of  life  and  the  criterion  of  virtue. 
Asserting  that  truth  cannot  be  determined  by  Eeason 
alone,  he  gives  up  philosophy  in  despair,  or  regards  it  as 
an  inferior  or  ineffectual  means  of  contributing  to  happi- 
ness. In  his  view  the  proper  division  of  philosophy  is 
into  Ethics,  Canonic,  and  Physics,  the  two  latter  The  doctrines 
being  of  very  little  importance  compared  with  of  tpicurus. 
the  first.  The  wise  man  or  sage  must  seek  in  an  Oriental 
quietism  for  the  chief  happiness  of  life,  indulging  himseli 
in  a  temperate  manner  as  respects  his  present  appetite, 
and  adding  thereto  the  recollection  of  similar  sensual 
pleasures  that  are  past,  and  the  expectation  of  new  ones 
reserved  for  the  future.  He  must  look  on  philosophy  as 
the  art  of  enjoying  life.  He  should  give  himself  no  con- 
cern as  to  death  or  the  power  of  the  gods,  who  are  only  3 


166  THE  GREEK  AGE  OF  FAITH.  [CH.  V. 

delusion ;  none  as  respects  a  future  state,  remembering 
that  the  soul,  which  is  nothing  more  than  a  congeries  of 
atoms,  is  resolved  into  those  constituents  at  death.  There 
can  be  no  doubt  that  such  doctrines  were  very  well  suited 
to  the  times  in  which  they  were  introduced;  for  so  great 
was  the  social  and  political  disturbance,  so  great  the  un- 
certainty of  the  tenure  of  property,  that  it  might  well  bo 
suggested  what  better  could  a  man  do  than  enjoy  his  own 
while  it  was  yet  in  his  possession  ?  nor  was  the  induce- 
ment to  such  a  course  lessened  by  extravagant  dissipations 
when  courtesans  and  cooks,  jesters  and  buffoons,  splendid 
attire  and  magnificent  appointments  had  become  essential 
to  life.  Demetrius  Poliorcetes,  who  understood  the  condi- 
tion of  things  thoroughly,  says,  "  There  was  not,  in  my 
time,  in  Athens,  one  great  or  noble  mind."  In  such  a 
social  state,  it  is  not  at  all  surprising  that  Epicurus  had 
many  followers,  and  that  there  were  many  who  agreed 
with  him  in  thinking  that  happiness  is  best  found  in  a 
Tranquil  in-  tranquil  indifference,  and  in  believing  th;it  thero 
difference  is  is  nothing  in  reality  good  or  bad  ;  that  it  is  best 
t  for  man.  ^Q  jecj(jo  UpOn  nothing,  but  to  leave  affairs  to 
chance ;  that  there  is,  after  all,  little  or  no  difference  be- 
tween life  and  death  :  that  a  wise  man  will  regard  philo- 
sophy as  an  activity  of  ideas  and  arguments  which  may 
tend  to  happiness;  that  its  physical  branch  is  of  no  other 
use  than  to  correct  superstitious  fancies  as  to  death,  and 
remove  the  fear  of  meteors,  prodigies,  and  other  phenomena 
by  explaining  their  nature ;  that  the  views  of  l)emocritus 
and  Aristotle  may  be  made  to  some  extent  available  for 
the  procurement  of  pleasure  ;  and  that  we  may  learn  from 
the  brutes,  who  pursue  pleasure  and  avoid  pain,  what 
ought  to  be  our  course.  '  Upon  the  whole,  it  will  be  found 
that  there  is  a  connexion  between  pleasure  and  virtue, 
especially  if  we  enlarge  our  views  and  seek  for  pleasure, 
not  in  the  gratification  of  the  present  moment,  but  in  the 
aggregate  offered  by  existence.  The  pleasures  of  the  soul 
all  originate  in  the  pleasures  of  the  flesh ;  not  only  those 
of  the  time  being,  but  also  those  recollected  in  the  past 
and  anticipated  in  the  future.  The  sage  will  therefore 
provide  for  all  these,  and,  remembering  that  pain  is  in  its 
nature  transient,  but  pleasure  is  enduring,  he  will  not 


CH.  V.]  THE   GREEK   AGE  OF   FAITH.  167 

hesitate  to  encounter  the  former  if  he  can  be  certain  that 
it  will  procure  him  the  latter ;  he  will  dismiss  from  his 
mind  all  idle  fears  of  the  gods  and  of  destiny,  for  these  are 
fictions  beneficial  only  to  women  and  the  vulgar ;  yet, 
since  they  are  the  objects  of  the  national  superstition,  it  is 
needless  to  procure  one's  self  disfavour  by  openly  deriding 
them.  It  will  therefore  be  better  for  the  sage  to  treat 
them  with  apparent  solemnity,  or  at  least  with  outward 
respect,  though  he  may  laugh  at  the  imposition  in  his 
heart.  As  to  the  fear  of  death,  he  will  be  especially 
careful  to  rid  himself  from  it,  remembering  that  death  is 
only  a  deliverer  from  the  miseries  of  life. 

Under  the  title  of  Canonic  Epicurus  delivers  his  philo- 
sophical views ;  they  are,  however,  of  a  very  Imperfection8 
superficial  kind.  He  insists  that  our  sensuous  of  the  Canonic 
impressions  are  the  criterion  of  truth,  and  that  0  picuru!'1 
even  the  sensations  of  a  lunatic  and  a  dreamer  are  true. 
But,  besides  the  impressions  of  the  moment,  memory  is 
also  to  be  looked  upon  as  a  criterion — memory,  which  is 
the  basis  of  experience. 

In  his  Physics  he  adopts  the  Atomic  theory  of  Demo- 
critus,  though  in  many  respects  it  ill  accords  amj  contradic- 
with  his  Ethics  or  Canonic;  but  so  low  is  his  tionsothia 
esteem  of  its  value  that  he  cares  nothing  for  y8108' 
that.  Though  atoms  and  a  void  are  in  their  nature  im- 
perceptible to  the  senses,  he  acknowledges  their  existence, 
asserting  the  occurrence  of  an  infinite  number  of  atoms  of 
different  kinds  in  the  infinite  void,  which,  because  of  their 
weight,  precipitate  themselves  perpendicularly  downward 
with  an  equable  motion ;  but  some  of  them,  through  an  un- 
accountable internal  force,  have  deviated  from  their  per- 
pendicular path,  and,  sticking  together  after  their  collision, 
have  given  rise  to  the  world.  Not  much  better  than  these 
vague  puerilities  are  his  notions  about  the  size  of  the  sun, 
the  nature  of  eclipses,  and  other  astronomical  phenomena  ; 
but  he  justifies  his  contradictions  and  superficiality  by 
asserting  that  it  is  altogether  useless  for  a  man  to  know 
such  things,  and  that  the  sage  ought  to  give  himself  no 
trouble  about  them.  As  to  the  soul,  he  says  that  it  must 
be  of  a  material  or  corporeal  nature,  for  this  simple  reason, 
that  there  is  nothing  incorporeal  but  a  vacuum;  he 


108  THE  GREEK   AGE  OF   FAITH.  [CH.  V. 

inclines  to  the  belief  that  it  is  a  rarefied  body,  easily 
movable,  and  somewhat  of  the  nature  of  a  vapour ;  lie 
divides  it  into  four  activities,  corresponding  to  the  four 
elements  entering  into  its  constitution  ;  and  that,  so  far 
from  being  immortal,  it  is  decomposed  into  its  integral 
atoms,  dying  when  the  body  dies.  With  the  atomic 
doctrines  of  Democritus,  Epicurus  adopts  the  notions  of 
that  philosopher  respecting  sensation,  to  the  effect  that 
eidola  or  images  are  sloughed  off  from  all  external  objects, 
and  find  access  to  the  brain  through  the  eye.  In  his 
theology  he  admits,  under  the  circumstances  we  have 
mentioned,  anthropomorphic  gods,  pretending  to  account 
for  their  origin  in  the  chance  concourse  of  atoms,  and 
suggesting  that  they  display  their  quietism  and  blessed- 
ness by  giving  themselves  no  concern  about  man 

His  irreligion.          i_ •        S  •      °T»  i.  j      •    •  j.- 

or  his  affairs.  By  such  derisive  promptings  does 
Epicurus  mock  at  the  religion  of  his  country— its  rituals, 
sacrifices,  prayers,  and  observances.  He  offers  no  better 
evidence  of  the  existence  of  God  than  that  there  is  a 
general  belief  current  among  men  in  support  of  such  a 
notion  ;  but,  when  brought  to  the  point,  he  does  not 
hesitate  to  utter  his  disbelief  in  the  national  theology,  and 
to  declare  that,  in  his  judgment,  it  is  blind  chance  that 
rules  the  world. 

Such  are  the  opinions  to  which  the  name  of  Epicurus 
has  been  attached  ;  but  there  were  Epicureans  ages  before 
that  philosopher  was  born,  and  Epicureans  there  will  be 
Epicureans  of  in  &H  time  to  come.  They  abound  in  our  own 
modtm times,  days,  ever  characterized  by  the  same  features — 
an  intense  egoism  in  their  social  relations,  superficiality 
in  their  philosophical  views,  if  the  term  philosophical  can 
be  justly  applied  to  intellects  so  narrow ;  they  manifest 
an  accordance  often  loud  and  particular  with  the  religion 
of  their  country,  while  in  their  hearts  and  in  their  lives 
they  are  utter  infidels.  These  are  they  who  constitute 
the  most  specious  part  of  modern  society,  and  are  often 
the  self-proclaimed  guardians  of  its  interests.  They  are 
to  be  found  in  every  grade  of  life ;  in  the  senate,  in  the 
army,  in  the  professions,  and  especially  in  commercial 
pursuits,  which,  unhappily,  tend  too  frequently  to  the 
development  of  selfishness.  It  is  to  them  that  society  is 


CH.  V.J  THE  GREEK  AGE  OF  FAITH.  169 

indebted  for  more  than  half  its  corruptions,  all  its  hypo- 
crisy, and  more  than  half  its  sins.  It  is  they  who  infuse 
into  it  falsehood  as  respects  the  past,  imposture  as  respects 
the  present,  fraud  as  respects  the  future  ;  who  teach  it  by 
example  that  the  course  of  a  man's  life  ought  to  be  de- 
termined upon  principles  of  selfishness ;  that  gratitude 
and  affection  are  well  enough  if  displayed  for  eifect,  but 
that  they  should  never  be  felt ;  that  men  are  to  be  looked 
upon  not  as  men,  but  as  things  to  be  used;  that  know- 
ledge and  integrity,  patriotism  and  virtue,  are  the  de- 
lusions of  simpletons;  and  that  wealth  is  the  only  object 
which  is  really  worthy  of  the  homage  of  man. 

It  now  only  remains  in  this  chapter  to  speak   of  the 
later  Platonism.     The  Old  Academy,  of  which  Plato  was 
the  founder,  limited  its  labours  to  the  illustra-  The  Middle 
tion  and  defence  of  his  doctrines.      The  Middle  Academy  of 
Academy,    originating    with    Arcesilaus,   born  A 
B.C.  316,  maintained  a  warfare  with  the  Stoics,  developed 
the  doctrine  of  the  uncertainty  of  sensual   impressions 
and  the  nothingness  of  human  knowledge.    The  The  New 
New  Academy  was  founded  by  Carneades,  born  Academy  of 
B.C.  213,  and  participated  with  the  preceding  Ci 
in  many  of  its  fundamental  positions.     On  the  one  side 
Carneades   leans  to  scepticism,  on  the   other  he  accepts 
probability  as  his  guide.      This  school  so  rapidly  degene- 
rated that  at  last  it  occupied  itself  with  rhetoric   alone. 
The    gradual    increase    of    scepticism    and    indifference 
throughout  this  period  is  obvious  enough ;  thus  Arcesilaus 
said  that  he  knew  nothing,  not  even  his  own  ignorance, 
and   denied   both   intellectual   and   sensuous   knowledge. 
Carneades,  obtaining  his  views  from  the  old  philosophy, 
found  therein  arguments  suitable  for  his  purpose  against 
necessity,  God,  soothsaying ;  he  did  not  admit  that  there 
is  any  such  thing  as  justice  in  the  abstract,  declaring  that 
it  is  a  purely  conventional   thing;    indeed,  _ it  The duplicity 
was  his  rhetorical  display,  alternately  in  praise  of  the  later 
of  justice  and  against  it,  on  the  occasion  of  his  Academicians- 
visit  to  Kome,  that  led  Cato  to  have  him  expelled  from 
the  city.    Though  Plato  had  been  the  representative  of  an 
age    of    faith,    a    secondary  analysis  of  all  his  works, 
implying  an  exposition  of  their  contradictions,  ended  in 

VOL.  I.— 9 


170  THE    GREEK    AGE    OF    FAITH.  [ciI.   V. 

scepticism.  If  we  may  undertake  to  determine  the  precise 
aim  of  a  philosophy  whose  representatives  stood  in  such 
an  attitude  of  rhetorical  duplicity,  it  may  be  said  to  be 
the  demonstration  that  there  is  no  criterion  of  truth  in 
this  world.  Persuaded  thus  of  the  impossibility  of  phi- 
losophy, Carneades  was  led  to  recommend  his  theory  of 
the  probable.  "  That  which  has  been  most  perfectly 
analyzed  and  examined,  and  found  to  be  devoid  of 
improbability,  is  the  most  probable  idea."  The  degenera- 
tion of  philosophy  now  became  truly  complete,  the  labours 
of  so  many  great  men  being  degraded  to  rhetorical  and 
artistic  purposes.  It  was  seen  by  all  that  Plato  had 
troyed  all  trust  in  the  indications  of  the  senses,  and 
substituted  for  it  the  Jdeal  theory.  Aristotle  had  de- 
The  fourth  stroyed  that,  and  there  was  nothing  left  to  the 
nnd  fifth  world  but  scepticism.  A  fourth  Academy  was 
Academic.  founded  by  pbiio  of  Larissa,  a  fifth  by  Anti- 
ochus  of  Ascalon.  It  was  reserved  for  this  teacher  to 
attach  the  Porch  to  the  Academy,  and  to  merge  the 
doctrines  of  Plato  in  those  of  the  Stoics.  Such  a  hetero- 
geneous mixture  demonstrates  the  pass  to  which  specula- 
tive philosophy  had  come,  and  shows  us  clearly  that  her 
disciples  had  abandoned  her  in  despair. 

So  ends  the  Greek  age  of  Faith.  How  strikingly  does 
En.iofthe  **s  history  recall  the  corresponding  period  of 
Greek  age  of  individual  life  —  the  trusting  spirit  and  the 
disappointment  of  youth.  We  enter  on  it  full 
of  confidence  in  things  and  men,  never  suspecting  that 
the  one  may  disappoint,  the  other  deceive.  Our  early 
experiences,  if  considered  at  all,  afford  only  matter  of 
surprise  that  we  could  ever  have  been  seriously  occupied 
in  such  folly,  or  actuated  by  motives  now  seeming  so 
inadequate.  It  never  occurs  to  us  that,  in  our  present 
state,  though  the  pursuits  may  have  changed,  they  are 
none  the  less  vain,  the  objects  none  the  less  delusive. 

The  second  age  of  Greek  philosophy  ended  in  sophism, 
the  third  in  scepticism.  Speculative  philosophy  strikes 
at  last  upon  a  limit  which  it  can  not  overpass.  This  is 
its  state  even  in  our  own  times.  It  reverberates  against 
the  wall  that  confines  it  without  the  least  chance  of 
making  its  way  through. 


CHAPTER  VI. 
THE  GREEK  AGE  OF  REASON. 

1USE    OF   SCIENCE. 

THE  MACEDONIAN  CAMPAIGN. — Disastrous  in  Us  political  Effects  to 
Greece,  but  ushering  in  the  Age  of  Eeason. 

AKISTOTLE  founds  the  Inductive  Philosophy. — His  Method  the  Inverse  of 
that  of  Plato. — Its  great  power. — In  his  oicn  hands  it  fails  for  want 
of  Knowledge,  but  is  carried  out  by  the  Alexandrians. 

ZENO. — His  Philosophical  Aim  is  the  Cultivation  of  Virtue  and  Know- 
ledge.— He  is  in  the  Ethical  Branch  the  Counterpart  of  Aristotle  in 
the  Physical. 

FOUNDATION  OF  THE  MUSEUM  OF  ALEXANDRIA. — The  great  Libraries, 
Observatories,  Botanical  Gardens,  Menageries,  Dissecting  Houses. —  Its 
liffect  on  the  rapid  Development  of  exact  Knowledge. — Influence  of 
Euclid,  Archimedes,  Eratosthenes,  Apollonius,  Ptolemy,  Hipparchus, 
on  Geometry,  Natural  Philosophy,  Astronomy,  Chronology,  Geography. 

Decline  of  the  Greek  Age  of  Reason. 

THE   conquest   of  Persia   by  Alexander   the   Great   is   a 
most   important   event   in   European   history.     That  ad- 
venturer, carrying  out  the  intentions  of  his  father  Philip, 
commenced    his   attack   with   apparently   very  TheGreelc 
insignificant  means,  having,  it  is  said,  at   the  invasion  of 
most,  only  thirty-four  thousand  infantry,  four  Pl 
thousand  cavalry,  and   seventy   talents   in   money.     The 
result   of   his   expedition   was   the   ruin   of   the   Persian 
empire,  and  also  the  ruin  of  Greece.      It  was  not  without 
reason  that  his  memory  was  cursed  in  his  native  country. 
Her  life-blood  was  drained  away   by   his   successes.      In 
view  of  the  splendid  fortunes  to  be  made  in  Asia,  Greece 
ceased  to  be  the  place  for  an  enterprising  man.     To  such 
an  extent  did  military  emigration  go,  that  Greek  recruits 


172  THE  GREEK  AGE  OF  REASON.         [CH.  VI. 

were  settled  all  over  the  Persian  empire ;  their  number 
was  sufficient  to  injure  irreparably  the  country  from 
which  they  had  parted,  but  not  sufficient  to  Hellenize  the 
dense  and  antique  populations  among  whom  they  had 
settled. 

Not  only  was  it  thus  by  the  drain  of  men  that  the 
Macedonian  expedition  was  so  dreadfully  disastrous  to 
its  ruinous  Grreece,  the  political  consequences  following 
effect  on  those  successful  campaigns  added  to  the  baneful 

result.  Alexander  could  not  have  more  eH'ectu- 
ally  ruined  Athens  had  he  treated  her  as  he  did  Thebes, 
which  he  levelled  with  the  ground,  massacring  six 
thousand  of  her  citizens,  and  selling  thirty  thousand  for 
slaves.  The  founding  of  Alexandria  was  the  commercial 
end  of  Athens,  the  finishing  stroke  to  her  old  colonial 
system.  It  might  have  been  well  for  her  had  he  stopped 
short  in  his  projects  with  the  downfall  of  Tyre,  destroyed, 
injuryt.  n°t  fr°m  any  vindictive  reasons,  as  is  sometimes 
Athens  irom  said,  but  because  he  discovered  that  that  city 
ofViexan-"'  was  an  essential  part  of  the  Persian  system.  It 
driii.  was  never  his  intention  that  Athens  should 

derive  advantage  from  the  annihilation  of  her  Phoenician 
competitor ;  his  object  was  effectually  carried  out  by  the 
building  and  prosperity  of  Alexandria. 

Though  the  military  celebrity  of  this  great  soldier  may 
be  diminished  by  the  history  of  the  last  hundred  years, 
which  shows  a  uniform  result  of  victory  when  European 
armies  are  brought  in  contact  with  Asiatic,  even  under 
the  most  extraordinary  disadvantages,  there  cannot  be 
denied  to  him  a  profound  sagacity  and  statesmanship 
excelled  by  no  other  conqueror.  Before  he  became  in- 
toxicated with  success,  and,  unfortunately,  too  frequently 
intoxicated  with  wine,  there  was  much  that  was  noble 
in  his  character.  He  had  been  under  the  instruction 
of  Aristotle  for  several  years,  and,  on  setting  out  on 
his  expedition,  took  with  him  so  many  learned  men  as 
s-i. utific  almost  to  justify  the  remark  applied  to  it,  thai, 
n  :<  ury  of  jt  was  as  much  a  scientific  as  a  military 
in-  undertaking.  Among  those  who  thus  accom- 

panied  him  was  Callisthenes,  a  relati ve  and  pupil 
of  Aristotle,  destined  for  an  evil  end.  Perhaps  the  assertion 


CH.  VI.]          THE  GREEK  AGE  OF  REASON.  173 

that  Alexander  furnished  to  his  master  250,000?.  and  the 
services  of  several  thousand  men,  for  the  purpose  of 
obtaining  and  examining  the  specimens  required  in  the 
composition  of  his  work  on  the  "  History  of  Animals  " 
may  be  an  exaggeration,  but  there  can  be  110  doubt  that 
in  these  transactions  was  the  real  beginning  of  that 
policy  which  soon  led  to  the  institution  of  the  Museum  at 
Alexandria.  The  importance  of  this  event,  origin  of  the 
though  hitherto  little  understood,  admits  of  no  influence  of 

,  .  ~  ,,        .     ,    n  -,  Anstutle 

exaggeration,  so  tar  as  the  intellectual  progress  thiough 
of  Europe  is  concerned.      It  gave  to  the  works  Alexander- 
of  Aristotle   their  wonderful   duration ;    it   imparted   to 
them    not    only   a    Grecian    celebrity,    but   led  to    their 
translation   into   Syriac   by  the   Nestorians   in   the  fifth 
century,  and  from  Syriac  by  the  Arabs  into  their  tongue 
four  hundred    years    later.      They    exercised    a    living 
influence  over  Christians  and  Mohammedans  indifferently, 
from  Spain  to  Mesopotamia. 

If  the  letter  quoted  by  Plutarch  as  having  been  written 
by  Alexander  to  Aristotle  be  authentic,  it  not  only  shows 
how  thoroughly  the  pupil  had  been  indoctrinated  into  the 
wisdom  of  the  master,  but  warns  us  how  liable  we  are  to 
be  led  astray  in  the  exposition  we  are  presently  to  give  of 
the  Aristotelian  philosophy.  There  was  then,  as  unfortu- 
nately there  has  been  too  often  since,  a  private  as  well  as 
a  public  doctrine.  Alexander  upbraids  the  philosopher  for 
his  indiscretion  in  revealing  things  that  it  was  understood 
should  be  concealed.  Aristotle  defends  himself  by  asserting 
that  the  desired  concealment  had  not  been  broken.  By 
many  other  incidents  of  a  trifling  kind  the  attachment  of 
the  conqueror  to  philosophy  is  indicated ;  thus  Harpalus 
and  Xearchus,  the  companions  of  his  youth,  were 

.••  IT-  r    !_••••.£»      Scientific 

the  agents  employed  in  some  01   his   scientific  tr.nning  and 
undertakings,  the  latter  being  engaged  in  sea  0""Ae1gtaif'"!?,s 
explorations,  doubtless  having  in   the   main   a 
political    object,   yet   full  of    interest  to  science.      Had 
Alexander    lived,    Nearchus    was  to  have  repeated   the 
circumnavigation  of  Africa.     Harpalus,  while  governor  of 
Babylon,  was  occupied  in  the  attempt   to   exchange   the 
vegetation  of  Europe  and  Asia :   he  intertransplanted  the 
productions  of  Persia  and  Greece,  succeeding,  as  is  related, 


174  THE   GREEK   AGE  OF   REASOX.  [oil.  Vt. 

in  his  object  of  making  all  European  plants  that  he  tried. 
except  the  ivy,  grow  in  Mesopotamia.  The  journey  to  the 
Caspian  Sea,  the  expedition  into  the  African  deserts, 
indicate  Alexander's  personal  taste  for  natural  knowledge ; 
nor  is  it  without  significance  that,  while  on  his  death-bod, 
and,  indeed,  within  a  few  days  of  his  decease,  he  found 
consolation  and  amusement  in  having  Nearchus  l>y  his 
side  relating  the  story  of  his  voyages.  Nothing  shows 
more  strikingly  how  correct  was  his  military  perception 
than  the  intention  he  avowed  of  equipping  a  thousand 
ships  for  the  conquest  of  Carthage,  and  thus  securing  his 
supremacy  in  the  Mediterranean.  Notwithstanding  all 
this,  there  were  many  points  of  his  character,  and  many 
events  of  his  life,  worthy  of  the  condemnation  with  which 
irMi^i  they  have  been  visited;  the  drunken  burning 

i*     r\  ft  •  1  11  i       • 

passions  and  of  1  er.sc] )olis,  the  prisoners  he  slaughtered  in 
honour  of  Ilephsestion,  the  hanging  of  C'allis- 
thenes,  were  the  results  of  intemperance  and  unbridled 
passion.  Even  so  steady  a  mind  as  his  was  incapable  of 
withstanding  the  influence  of  such  enormous  treasures  as 
those  he  seized  at  Susa ;  the  plunder  of  the  Persian 
empire ;  the  inconceivable  luxury  of  Asiatic  life ;  the 
uncontrolled  power  to  which  he  attained.  But  he  was  not 
so  imbecile  as  to  believe  himself  the  descendant  of  Jupiter 
Ammon ;  that  was  only  an  artifice  he  permitted  for  the 
sake  of  influencing  those  around  him.  We  must  not 
forget  that  he  lived  in  an  age  when  men  looked  for 
immaculate  conceptions  and  celestial  descents.  These 
Asiatic  ideas  had  made  their  way  into  Europe.  The 
Athenians  themselves  were  soon  to  be  reconciled  to  the 
appointment  of  divine  honours  to  such  as  Antigonus  and 
Demetrius,  adoring  them  as  gods — saviour  gods — and 
instituting  sacrifices  and  priests  for  their  worship. 

Great  as  were  the  political  results  of  the  Macedonian 
The  i!-cct  expedition,  they  were  equalled  by  the  intellectual, 
age  of  Reason  The  times  were  marked  by  the  ushering  in  of  a 
1  In'  new  philosophy.  Greece  had  gone  through  her 
age  of  Credulity,  her  age  of  Inquiry,  her  age  of  Faith ; 
(she  had  entered  on  her  age  of  Keason,  and,  had  freedom  of 
action  been  permitted  to  her,  she  would  have  given  a- 
deei«ive  tone  to  the  forthcoming  civilization  of  Europe. 


CIT.  VJ.]         THE  GREEK  AGE  OF  REASON.  175 

As  will  be  seen  in  the  following  pages,  that  great  destiny 
did  not  await  her.     From  her  eccentric  position  at  Alex- 
andria she  could  not  civilize  Europe.     In  her  old  its  inability 
age,  the  power  of  Europe,  concentrated  in  the  to  accomplish 

T>  •  J.T-  V  rivi  theciviliza- 

Iioman  empire,  overthrew  her.  1  here  are  very  tion  of 
few  histories  of  the  past  of  more  interest  to  Kur°Pe- 
modern  times,  and  none,  unfortunately,  more  misunderstood, 
than  this  Greek  age  of  Reason  manifested  at  Alexandria. 
It  illustrates,  in  the  most  signal  manner,  that  aiFairs  control 
men  more  than  men  control  affairs.  The  scientific  associ- 
ations of  the  Macedonian  conqueror  directly  arose  from  the 
contemporaneous  state  of  Greek  philosophy  in  the  act  of 
reaching  the  close  of  its  age  of  faith,  and  these  influences 
ripened  under  the  Macedonian  captain  who  became  King 
of  Egypt.  As  it  was,  the  learning  of  Alexandria,  though 
diverted  from  its  most  appropriate  and  desirable  direction 
by  the  operation  of  the  Byzantine  system,  in  the  course  of 
a  few  centuries  acting  forcibly  upon  it,  was  not  without 
an  influence  on  the  future  thought  of  Europe.  Even  at 
this  day  Europe  will  not  bear  to  be  fully  told  how  great 
that  influence  has  been. 

The  age  of  Reason,  to  which  .Aristotle  is  about  to  intro- 
duce us,  stands  in  striking  contrast  to  the  preceding  ages. 
It  cannot  escape  the  reader  that  what  was  done  by  the 
men  of  science  in  Alexandria  resembles  what  is  doing  in 
our  own  times  ;  their  day  was  the  foreshadowing  of  ours. 
And  yet  a  long  and  dreary  period  of  almost  twenty  centuries 
parts  us  from  them.  Politically,  Aristotle,  through  his 
friendship  with  Alexander  and  the  perpetua-  -. 

i        •»  r  •     n  •       r\     -i  *  "e  writings 

tion  of  the  Macedonian  influence  in  1  toleniy,  of  Aristotle 
was  the  connecting  link  between  the  Greek  age  areitsPrelud(1< 
of  Faith  and  that  of  Reason,  as  he  was  also  philosophically 
by  the  nature  of  his  doctrines.  He  offers  us  an  easy 
passage  from  the  speculative  methods  of  Plato  to  the  scien- 
tific methods  of  Archimedes  and  Euclid.  The  copiousness 
of  his  doctrines,  and  the  obscurity  of  many  of  them,  might, 
perhaps,  discourage  a  superficial  student,  unless  he  steadily 
bears  in  mind  the  singular  authority  they  maintained  for 
so  many  ages,  and  the  brilliant  results  in  all  the  exact 
parts  of  human  knowledge  to  which  they  so  quickly  led. 
The  history  of  Aristotle  and  his  philosophy  is  therefore 


176  THE  GREEK  AGE  OF  REASON.        [CH.  VI. 

our  necessary  introduction  to  the  grand,  the  immortal 
achievements  of  the  Alexandrian  school. 

Aristotle  was  born  at  Stagira,  in  Thrace,  B.C.  384.  His 
Biography  of  father  was  an  eminent  author  of  those  times  on 
Aristotle.  subjects  of  Natural  History ;  by  profession  ho 
was  a  physician.  Dying  while  his  son  was  yet  quite 
young,  he  bequeathed  to  him  not  only  very  ample  means, 
but  also  his  own  tastes.  Aristotle  soon  found  his  way  to 
Athens,  and  entered  the  school  of  Plato,  with  whom  it  is 
said  he  remained  for  nearly  twenty  years.  During  this 
period  he  spent  most  of  his  patrimony,  and  in  the  end  was 
obliged  to  support  himself  by  the  trade  of  a  druggist.  At 
length  differences  arose  between  them,  for,  as  we  shall 
soon  find,  the  great  pupil  was  by  no  means  a  blind  follower 
of  the  great  master.  In  a  fortunate  moment,  Philip,  the 
King  of  Macedon,  appointed  him  preceptor  to  his  son 
Alexander,  an  incident  of  importance  in  the  intellectual 
history  of  Europe.  It  was  to  the  friendship  arising 
through  this  relation  that  Aristotle  owed  the  assistance 
he  received  from  the  conqueror  during  his  Asiatic  expedi- 
tion for  the  composition  of  "the  Natural  History," and  also 
gained  that  prestige  which  gave  his  name  such  singular 
authority  for  more  than  fifteen  centuries.  He  eventually 
founded  a  school  in  the  Lyceum  at  Athens,  and,  as  it  was 
his  habit  to  deliver  his  lectures  while  walking,  his  disciples 
received  the  name  of  Peripatetics,  or  walking  philosophers. 
These  lectures  were  of  two  kinds,  esoteric  and  exoteric,  the 
former  being  delivered  to  the  more  advanced  pupils  only. 
He  wrote  a  very  large  number  of  works,  of  which  about 
one-fourth  remain. 

The  philosophical  method  of  Aristotle  is  the  inverse  of 
He  founds  the  *hat  °^  Yl&to,  whose  starting-point  was  uni  ver- 
inductive  phi-  sals,  the  very  existence  of  which  was  a  matter 
of  faith,  and  from  these  -he  descended  to  parti- 
culars or  details.  Aristotle,  on  the  contrary,  rose  from 
particulars  to  universals,  advancing  to  them  by  inductions ; 
and  his  system,  thus  an  inductive  philosophy,  was  in 
reality  the  true  beginning  of  science. 

Plato  therefore  trusts  to  the  Imagination,  Aristotle  to 
Reason.  The  contrast  between  them  is  best  seen  by  the 
attitude  in  which  they  stand  as  respects  the  Ideal  theory. 


CH.  VI.]         THE  GREEK  AGE  OF  REASON.  177 

Plato  regards  universals,  types,  or  exemplars  as  having  an 
actual  existence ;  Aristotle  declares  that  they  His  mctho(1 
are  mere  abstractions  of  reasoning.  For  the  o-mparedwitu 
fanciful  reminiscences  derived  from  former  ex-  that  of 
perience  in  another  life  by  Plato,  Aristotle  substitutes  the 
reminiscences  of  our  actual  experience  in  this.  These  ideas 
of  experience  are  furnished  by  the  memory,  which  enables 
us  not  only  to  recall  individual  facts  and  events  witnessed 
by  ourselves,  but  also  to  collate  them  with  one  another, 
thereby  discovering  their  resemblances  and  their  diiferences. 
Our  induction  becomes  the  more  certain  as  our  facts  are 
more  numerous,  our  experience  larger.  "  Art  commences 
when,  from  a  great  number  of  experiences,  one  general 
conception  is  formed  which  will  embrace  all  similar  cases.'' 
"  If  we  properly  observe  celestial  phenomena,  we  may 
demonstrate  the  laws  which  regulate  them."  With  Plato, 
philosophy  arises  from  faith  in  the  past ;  with  Aristotle, 
reason  alone  can  constitute  it  from  existing  facts.  Plato 
is  analytic,  Aristotle  synthetic.  The  philosophy  of  Plato 
arises  from  the  decomposition  of  a  primitive  idea  into  par- 
ticulars, that  of  Aristotle  from  the  union  of  particulars 
into  a  general  conception.  The  former  is  essentially  an 
idealist,  the  latter  a  materialist. 

From  this  it  will  be  seen  that  the  method  of  Plato 
was  capable  of  producing  more  splendid,  though  The  results  of 
they  were  necessarily  more  unsubstantial  results ;  I'latomsm  and 
that  of  Aristotle  was  more  tardy  in  its  operation,  Ans< 
but  much  more  solid.  It  implied  endless  laboul  in  the 
collection  of  facts,  the  tedious  resort  to  experiment  and 
observation,  the  application  of  demonstration.  In  its  very 
nature  it  was  such  that  it  was  impossible  for  its  author  to 
carry  by  its  aid  the  structure  of  science  to  completion. 
The  moment  that  Aristotle  applies  his  own  principles  we 
find  him  compelled  to  depart  from  them  through  want  of 
a  sufficient  experience  and  sufficient  precision  in  his  facts. 
The  philosophy  of  Plato  is  a  gorgeous  castle  in  the  air, 
that  of  Aristotle  is  a  solid  structure,  laboriously,  and,  with 
many  failures,  founded  on  the  solid  rock. 

Under  Logic,  Aristotle  treats  of  the  methods  of  arriving 
at  general  propositions,  and  of  reasoning  from  them.  His 
logic  is  at  once  the  art  of  thinking  and  the  instrument 

9* 


178  THE  GREEK  AGE  OF   RAASON.  [oil.  \l 

of  thought.  The  completeness  oi  our  knowledge  dependt 
Aristotle's  °n  the  extent  and  completeness  of  our  ex 
logic  perieiice.  His  manner  of  reasoning  is  by  the 

syllogism,  an  argument  consisting  of  three  propositions, 
such  that  the  concluding  one  follows  of  necessity  from  the 
two  premises,  and  of  which,  indeed,  the  whole  theory  ot 
demonstration  is  only  an  example.  Regarding  logic  as 
the  instrument  of  thought,  he  introduces  into  it,  as  a  fun- 
damental feature,  the  ten  categories.  These  predicaments 
are  the  genera  to  which  everything  may  be  reduced,  and 
denote  the  most  general  of  the  attributes  which  may  be 
assigned  to  a  thing. 

His  metaphysics  overrides  all  the  branches  of  the  phy- 
sical sciences.  It  undertakes  an  examination  of  the  po.^tu- 
nnd  mtta-  lates  on  which  each  one  of  them  is  founded,  dctcr- 
piiytics.  mining  their  truth  or  fallacy.  Considering  that 
all  science  must  find  a  support  for  its  fundamental  condi- 
tions in  an  extensive  induction  from  facts,  he  puts  at  the 
foundation  of  his  system  the  consideration  of  the  individual ; 
in  relation  to  the  world  of  sense,  he  regards  four  causes  as 
necessary  for  the  production  of  a  fact — the  material  cause, 
the  substantial  cause,  the  efficient  cause,  the  final  cause. 

But  as  soon  as  we  come  to  the  Physics  of  Aristotle  we 
Temporary  sce  a^  once  his  weakness.  The  knowledge  of  his 
failure  of  bis  age  does  not  funiish  him  facts  enough  whereon 
to  build,  and  the  consequence  is  that  he  is  forced 
into  speculation.  It  will  be  sufficient  for  our  purpose  to 
allude  to  a  few  of  his  statements,  either  in  this  or  in  his 
metaphysical  branch,  to  show  how  great  is  his  uncertainty 
and  confusion.  Thus  he  asserts  that  matter  contains  a 
triple  form — simple  substance,  higher  substance,  which  is 
eternal,  and  absolute  substance,  or  God  himself;  that  the 
universe  is  immutable  and  eternal,  and,  though  in  relation 
The  Pertpate-  wi*-h  tno  vicissitudes  of  tht-  world,  it  is  unaffected 
•i.-phiio-  thereby;  that  the  primitive  force  which  gives 
rise  to  all  the  motions  and  changes  we  see  is 
Nature;  it  also  gives  rise  to  Rest;  that  the  world  is  a 
substance  living  being,  having  a  soul ;  that,  since  every 
Motion,  '  thing  is  for  some  particular  end,  the  soul  of  man 
is  the  end  of  his  body  ;  that  Motion  is  the  con- 
dition of  all  nature ;  that  the  world  has  a  definite  boundary 


CH.  VJ.]         THE  GREEK  AGE  OF  REASON.  179 

and  a  limited  magnitude ;  that  Space  is  the  immovable 
vessel  in  which  whatever  is  may  be  moved ;  that  Space, 
as  a  whole,  is  without  motion,  though  its  parts  may  move  : 
that  it  is  not  to  be  conceived  of  as  without  contents ;  that 
it  is  impossible  for  a  vacuum  to  exist,  and  hence  there  is 
not  beyond  and  surrounding  the  world  a  void  which  con- 
tains the  wrorld;  that  there  could  be  no  such  thing  as 
Time  unless  there  is  a  soul,  for  time  being  the  number  of 
motion,  number  is  impossible  except  there  be  one  who 
numbers;  that,  perpetual  motion  in  a  finite  right  line 
being  impossible,  but  in  a  curvilinear  path  possible,  the 
world,  which  is  limited  and  ever  in  motion,  must 
be  of  a  spherical  form  ;  that  the  earth  is  its 
central  part,  the  heavens  the  circumferential :  hence  the 
heaven  is  nearest  to  the  prime  cause  of  motion ;  that  the 
orderly,  continuous,  and  unceasing  movement  of  the  celes- 
tial bodies  implies  an  unmoved  mover,  for  the  unchangeable 
alone  can  give  birth  to  uniform  motion ;  that  unmoved 
existence  is  God ;  that  the  stars  are  passionless  beings, 
having  attained  the  end  of  existence,  and  worthy  above 
other  things  of  human  adoration ;  that  the  fixed  stars  are 
in  the  outermost  heaven,  and  the  sun,  moon,  and  planets 
beneath :  the  former  receive  their  motion  from  the  prime 
moving  cause,  but  the  planets  are  disturbed  by  the  stars ; 
that  there  are  five  elements — earth,  air,  fire,  water,  and 
ether ;  that  the  earth  is  in  the  centre  of  the  world,  since 
earthy  matter  settles  uniformly  round  a  central  point ; 
that  fire  seeks  the  circumferential  region,  and  interme- 
diately water  floats  upon  the  earth,  and  air  upon  water ; 
that  the  elements  are  transmutable  into  one  another,  and 
hence  many  intervening  substances  arise ;  that  each  sphere 
is  in  interconnection  with  the  others  ;  the  earth  is  agitated 
and  disturbed  by  the  sea,  the  sea  by  the  winds,  which  are 
movements  of  the  air,  the  air  by  the  sun,  moon,  and 
planets.  Each  inferior  sphere  is  controlled  by  its  outlying 
or  superior  one,  and  hence  it  follows  that  the  earth,  which 
is  thus  disturbed  by  the  conspiring  or  conflicting  action  of 
all  above  it,  is  liable  to  the  most  irregularities  ;  that,  since 
animals  are  nourished  by  the  earth,  it  needs  must  enter 
into  their  composition,  but  that  water  is  required  to  hold 
the  earthy  matters  together ;  that  every  element  must  bo 


180  THE  GREEK  AGE  OF  KEASON.         [CH.  VI. 

looked  upon  as  living,  since  it  is  pervaded  by  the  soul  of 
the  world;  that  there  is  an  unbroken  chain  from  the 
simple  element  through  the  plant  and  animal  up  to  mail, 
the  different  groups  merging  by  insensible  shades  into  one 
Organic  another :  thus  zoophytes  partake  partly  of  the 
beings.  vegetable  and  partly  of  the  animal,  and  serve  as 

an  intermedium  between  them ;  that  plants  are  inferior  to 
animals  in  this,  that  they  do  not  possess  a  single  principle 
of  life  or  soul,  but  many  subordinate  ones,  as  is  shown  by 
the  circumstance  that,  when  they  are  cut  to  pieces,  each 
piece  is  capable  of  perfect  or  independent  growth  or  life. 
Their  inferiority  is  likewise  betrayed  by  their  belonging 
especially  to  the  earth  to  which  they  are  rooted,  each  root 
being  a  true  mouth ;  and  this  again  displays  their  lowly 
position,  for  the  place  of  the  mouth  is  ever  an  indication 
of  the  grade  of  a  creature :  thus  in  man,  who  is  at  the 
head  of  the  scale,  it  is  in  the  upper  part  of  the  body ;  that 
in  proportion  to  the  heat  of  an  animal  is  its  grade  higher : 
thus  those  that  are  aquatic  are  cold,  and  therefore  of  very 
little  intelligence,  and  the  same  may  be  said  of  plants ;  but 
of  man,  whose  warmth  is  very  great,  the  soul  is  much 
more  excellent ;  that  the  possession  of  locomotion  by  an 
organism  always  implies  the  possession  of  sensation ;  that 
the  senses  of  taste  and  touch  indicate  the  qualities  of  things 
in  contact  with  the  organs  of  the  animal,  but  that  those  of 
smell,  hearing,  and  sight  extend  the  sphere  of  its  existence, 
and  indicate  to  it  what  is  at  a  distance  :  that  the  place  of 
pii-  ^-logical  reception  of  the  various  sensations  is  the  soul, 
conclusions,  from  which  issue  forth  the  motions ;  that  the 
blood,  as  the  general  element  of  nutrition,  is  essential  to 
the  support  of  the  body,  though  insensible  itself :  it  is  also 
essential  to  the  activity  of  the  soul ;  that  the  brain  is  not  the 
recipient  of  sensations  :  that  function  belongs  to  the  heart ; 
all  the  animal  activities  are  united  in  the  last ;  it  contains 
the  principle  of  life,  being  the  principle  of  motion  :  it  is 
the  first  part  to  bo  formed  and  the  last  to  die ;  that  the 
brain  is  a  mere  appendix  to  the  heart,  since  it  is  formed 
after  the  heart,  is  the  coldest  of  the  organs,  and  is  devoid 
of  blood  ;  that  the  soul  is  the  reunion  of  all  the  functions 
of  the  body :  it  is  an  energy  or  active  essence  ;  being 
neither  body  nor  magnitude,  it  cannot  have  extension,  for 


CH.  VI.]         THE  GREEK  AGE  OF  REASON.  181 

thought  has  no  parts,  nor  can  it  be  said  to  move  in  space ; 
it  is  as  a  sailor,  who  is  motionless  in  a  ship  which  is  moving  ; 
that,  in  the  origin  of  the  organism,  the  male  furnishes  the 
soul  and  the  female  the  body  ;  that  the  body  being  liable 
to  decay,  and  of  a  transitory  nature,  it  is  necessary  for  its 
well-being  that  its  disintegration  and  nutrition  should 
balance  one  another ;  that  sensation  may  be  compared  to 
ihe  impression  of  a  seal  on  wax,  the  wax  receiving  form 
only,  but  no  substance  or  matter  ;  that  imagination  arises 
from  impressions  thus  made,  which  endure  for  a  length  of 
time,  and  that  this  is  the  origin  of  memory  ;  that  man 
alone  possesses  recollection,  but  animals  share  with  him 
memory — memory  being  unintentional  or  spontaneous, 
but  recollection  implying  voluntary  exertion  or  a  search  ; 
that  recollection  is  necessary  for  acting  with  design.  It  is 
doubtful  whether  Aristotle  believed  in  the  immortality  of 
the  soul,  no  decisive  passage  to  that  effect  occurring  in 
such  of  his  works  as  are  extant. 

Aristotle,  with  a  correct  and  scientific  method,  tried  to 
build  up  a  vast  system  when  he  was  not  in  possession  of 
the  necessary  data.  Though  a  very  learned  man, 
he  had  not  sufficient  knowledge ;  indeed,  there  Aristotle's 
was  not  sufficient  knowledge  at  that  time  in  the  success  and 
world.  For  many  of  the  assertions  I  have  quoted 
in  the  preceding  paragraph  there  was  no  kind  of  proof; 
many  of  them  also,  such  as  the  settling  of  the  heavy  and 
the  rise  of  the  light,  imply  very  poor  cosmic  ideas.  It  is 
not  until  he  deals  with  those  branches,  such  as  comparative 
anatomy  and  natural  history,  of  which  he  had  a  personal 
and  practical  knowledge,  that  he  begins  to  write  well.  Of 
his  physiological  conclusions,  some  are  singularly  felicitous ; 
his  views  of  the  connected  chain  of  organic  forms,  from  the 
lowest  to  the  highest,  are  very  grand.  His  metaphysical 
and  physical  speculations — for  in  reality  they  are  nothing 
but  speculations— are  of  no  kind  of  value.  His  successful 
achievements,  and  also  his  failures,  conspicuously  prove  the 
excellence  of  his  system.  He  expounded  the  true  prin- 
ciples of  science,  but  failed  to  apply  them  merely  for  want 
of  materials.  His  ambition  could  not  brook  restraint.  He 
would  rather  attempt  to  construct  the  universe  without 
the  necessary  means  than  not  construct  it  at  all. 


182  THE  GREEK  AGE  OF  REASON.         fCH.  VI. 

Aristotle  failed  when  he  abandoned  his  own  principles, 
and  the  magnitude  of  his  failure  proves  how  just  his 
principles  were ;  he  succeeded  when  he  adhered  to  them. 
Jf  anything  were  wanting  to  vindicate  their  correctness 
and  illustrate  them,  it  is  supplied  by  the  glorious  achieve- 
ments of  the  Alexandrian  school,  which  acted  in  ph}-sica] 
science  as  Aristotle  had  acted  in  natural  history,  laying  a 
l>asis  solidly  in  observation  and  experiment,  and  accom- 
plishing a  like  durable  and  brilliant  result. 

From  Aristotle  it  is  necessary  to  turn  to  Zeno,  for  the 
Peripatetics  and  Stoics  stand  in  parallel  lines.  The  social 
Biography  of  conditions  existing  in  (j recce  at  the  time  of 
Zen».  Epicurus  may  in  some  degree  palliate  his 

sentiments,  but  virtue  and  honour  will  make  themselves 
felt  at  last.  Stoicism  soon  appeared  as  the  antagonist  of 
Epicureanism,  and  Epicurus  found  in  Xeno  of  Citium  a 
rival.  The  passage  from  Epicurus  to  Zeno  is  the  passage 
from  sensual  gratification  to  self-control. 

The  biography  of  Zeno  may  be  dismissed  in  a  few  words. 
Born  about  B.C.  300,  he  spent  the  early  part  of  his  life  in 
the  vocation  of  his  father,  who  was  a  merchant,  but,  by  a 
fortunate  shipwreck,  happily  losing  his  goods  during  a 
voyage  he  was  making  to  Athens,  he  turned  to  philosophy 
for  consolation.  Though  he  had  heretofore  been  somewhat 
acquainted  with  the  doctrines  of  Socrates,  he  became  a 
disciple  of  the  Cynics,  subsequently  studying  in  the 
Megaric  school,  and  then  making  himself  acquainted  with 
riatonism.  After  twenty  years  of  preparation,  he  opened 
a  school  in  the  stoa  or  porch  in  Athens,  from  which  his 
doctrine  and  disciples  have  received  their  name.  He  pre- 
sided over  his  school  for  fifty-eight  years,  numbering  many 
eminent  men  among  his  disciples.  When  nearly  a  hundred 
years  old  he  chanced  to  fall  and  break  his  finger,  and, 
receiving  this  as  an  admonition  that  his  time  was  accom- 
plished, he  forthwith  strangled  himself.  The  Athenians 
erected  to  his  memory  a  statue  of  brass.  His  doctrines  long 
survived  him,  and,  in  times  when  there  was  no  other  con- 
solation for  man,  offered  a  support  in  their  hour  of  trial,  and 
an  unwavering  guide  in  the  vicissitudes  of  life,  not  only 
to  many  illustrious  Greeks,  but  also  to  some  of  the  great 
philosophers,  statesmen,  generals,  and  emperors  of  Rome. 


CH.  VI.J  THE  GREEK  AGE   OF   REASON.  183 

It  was  the  intention  of  Zeno  to  substitute  for  the 
visionary  speculations  of  Platonism  a  system  directed  to 
the  daily  practices  of  life,  and  hence  dealing  intention  of 
chiefly  with  morals.  To  make  men  virtuous  was  Stuicism- 
his  aim.  But  this  is  essentially  connected  with  knowledge, 
for  Zeno  was  persuaded  that  if  we  only  know  what  is  good 
we  shall  be  certain  to  practise  it.  He  therefore  rejected 
Plato's  fancies  of  Ideas  and  Reminiscences,  leaning  to  the 
common-sense  doctrines  of  Aristotle,  to  whom  he  approached 
in  many  details.  With  him  Sense  furnishes  the  data  of 
knowledge,  and  Reason  combines  them :  the  soul  being 
modified  by  external  things,  and  modifying  them  in  return, 
he  believed  that  the  mind  is  at  first,  as  it  were,  a  blank 
tablet,  on  which  sensation  writes  marks,  and  that  the  dis- 
tinctness of  sensuous  impressions  is  the  criterion  of  their 
truth.  The  changes  thus  produced  in  the  soul  constitute 
ideas  ;  but,  with  a  prophetic  inspiration,  he  complained  that 
man  will  never  know  the  true  essence  of  things. 

In  his  Physics  Zeno  adopted  the  doctrine  of  Strato,  that 
the  world  is  a  living  being.  He  believed  that  The  Physics 
nothing  incorporeal  can  produce  an  effect,  and  °fZen°- 
hence  that  the  soul  is  corporeal.  Matter  and  its  properties 
he  considered  to  be  absolutely  inseparable,  a  property  being 
actually  a  body.  In  the  world  there  are  two  things, 
matter  and  God,  who  is  the  Reason  of  the  world.  Essentially, 
however,  God  and  matter  are  the  same  thing,  which  as- 
sumes the  aspect  of  matter  from  the  passive  point  of  view, 
and  God  from  the  active :  he  is,  moreover,  the  prime 
moving  force,  Destiny,  Necessity,  a  life-giving  Soul, 
evolving  things  as  the  vital  force  evolves  a  plant  out  of  a 
seed ;  the  visible  world  is  thus  to  be  regarded  as  the 
material  manifestation  of  God.  The  transitory  objects 
which  it  on  all  sides  presents  will  be  reabsorbed  after  a 
season  of  time,  and  reunited  in  him.  The  Stoics  pretended 
to  indicate,  even  in  a  more  definite  manner,  the  process  by 
which  the  world  has  arisen,  and  also  its  future  destiny ; 
for,  regarding  the  Supreme  as  a  vital  heat,  they  supposed 
that  a  portion  of  that  fire,  declining  in  energy,  became 
transmuted  into  matter,  and  hence  the  origin  of  the  world  ; 
but  that  that  fire,  hereafter  resuming  its  activity,  would 
cause  a  universal  conflagration,  the  end  of  things.  During 


184  THE  GREEK  AGE  OF  REASON.        [CH.  VI. 

the  present  state  everything  is  in  a  condition  of  uncertain 
mutation,  decays  being  followed  by  reproductions,  and  re- 
productions by  decays  ;  and,  as  a  cataract  shows  from  year 
to  year  an  invariable  form,  though  the  water  composing  it 
is  perpetually  changing,  so  the  objects  around  us  arc 
nothing  more  than  a  flux  of  matter  offering  a  permanent 
form.  Thus  the  visible  world  is  only  a  moment  in  the  life 
of  God,  and  after  it  has  vanished  away  like  a  scroll  that 
is  burned,  a  new  period  shall  be  ushered  in,  and  a  new 
heaven  and  a  new  earth,  exactly  like  the  ancient  ones,  shall 
arise.  Since  nothing  can  exist  without  its  contrary,  no 
injustice  unless  there  was  justice,  no  cowardice  unless  there 
was  courage,  no  lie  unless  there  was  truth,  no  shadow 
unless  there  was  light,  so  the  existence  of  good  necessitates 
that  of  evil.  The  Stoics  believed  that  the  development  of 
the  world  is  under  the  dominion  of  paramount  law,  supremo 
law,  Destiny,  to  which  God  himself  is  subject,  and  that 
hence  he  can  only  develop  the  world  in  a  predestined  way, 
as  the  vital  warmth  evolves  a  seed  into  the  predestined  form 
of  a  plant. 

The  Stoics  held  it  indecorous  to  offend  needlessly  the 
Exoteric  p'  i-  religious  ideas  of  the  times,  and,  indeed,  they 
losophy  of  the  admitted  that  there  might  be  created  gods  like 
those  of  Plato ;  but  they  disapproved  of  the 
adoration  of  images  and  the  use  of  temples,  making  amends 
for  their  offences  in  these  particulars  by  offering  a  semi- 
philosophical  interpretation  of  the  legends,  and  demon- 
strating that  the  existence,  and  even  phenomenal  display 
of  the  gods  was  in  accordance  with  their  principles. 
Perhaps  to  this  exoteric  philosophy  we  must  ascribe  the 
manner  in  which  they  expressed  themselves  as  to  final 
causes — expressions  sometimes  of  amusing  quaintness— 
thus,  that  the  peacock  was  formed  for  the  sake  of  his  tail, 
and  that  a  soul  was  given  to  the  hog  instead  of  salt,  to 
prevent  his  body  from  rotting ;  that  the  final  cause  of 
plants  is  to  be  food  for  brutes,  of  brutes  to  be  food  for  men, 
though  they  discreetly  checked  thc-ir  irony  in  its  ascending 
career,  and  abstained  from  saying  that  men  are  food  for 
the  gods,  and  the  gods  for  all. 

The  Stoics  concluded  that  the  soul  is  mere  warm  brontli, 
and  that  it  and  the  body  mutually  interporvade  ono  another. 


CH.  VI.]         THE  GREEK  AGE  OF  REASON.  185 

They  thought  that  it  might  subsist  after  death  until  the 
general  conflagration,  particularly  if  its  energy  Thelr  opinions 
were  great,  as  in  the  strong  spirits  of  the  virtuous  of  the  natuie 
and  wise.     Its  unity  of  action  implies  that  it  of 
has  a  principle  of  identity,  the  I,  of  which  the  physio- 
logical seat  is  the  heart.     Every  appetite,  lust,  or  desire  is 
an  imperfect  knowledge.     Our  nature  and  properties  are 
forced  upon  us  by  Fate,  but  it  is  our  duty  to  despise  all 
our  propensities  and  passions,  and  to  live  so  that  we  may 
be  free,  intelligent,  and  virtuous. 

This  sentiment  leads  us  to  the  great  maxim  of  Stoical 
Ethics,  "  Live  according  to  Reason  ;"  or,  since  the  world  is 
composed  of  matter  and  God,  who  is  the  Reason  of  the 
world,  "  Live  in  harmony  with  Nature."  As  Reason  is 
supreme  'n  Nature,  it  ought  to  be  so  in  man.  Our  exist- 
ence should  be  intellectual,  and  all  bodily  pains  ^eiT  ethical 
and  pleasures  should  be  despised.  A  harmony  rules  of 
between  the  hitman  will  and  universal  Beason  wisijom- 
constitutes  virtue.  The  free-will  of  the  sage  should  guide 
his  actions  in  the  same  irresistible  manner  in  which 
universal  Reason  controls  nature.  Hence  the  necessity  of 
a  cultivation  of  physics,  without  which  we  cannot  distin- 
guish good  from  evil.  The  sage  is  directed  to  remember 
that  Nature,  in  her  operations,  aims  at  the  universal,  and 
never  spares  individuals,  but  uses  them  as  means  for  ac- 
complishing her  ends.  It  is  for  him,  therefore,  to  submit 
to  his  destiny,  endeavouring  continually  to  establish  the 
supremacy  of  Reason,  and  cultivating,  as  the  things  neces- 
sary to  virtue,  knoAvledge,  temperance,  fortitude,  justice. 
He  is  at  liberty  to  put  patriotism  at  the  Value  it  is  worth 
when  he  remembers  that  he  is  a  citizen  of  the  world  ;  he 
must  train  himself  to  receive  in  tranquillity  the  shocks  of 
Destiny,  and  to  be  above  all  passion  and  all  pain.  He 
must  never  relent  and  never  forgive.  He  must  remember 
that  there  are  only  two  classes  of  men,  the  wise  and  the 
fools,  as  "  sticks  can  only  either  be  straight  or  crooked,  and 
very  few  sticks  in  this  world  are  absolutely  straight." 

From  the  account  I  have  given  of  Aristotle's  philosophy, 
it  may  be  seen  that  he  occupied  a  middle  ground  between 
tie  speculation  of  the  old  philosophy  and  the  strict  science 


186  THK  GREEK  AGE  OF  REASON.         [CH.  VI. 

of  the  Alexandrian  school.  He  is  the  true  connecting 
Rise  of  Greek  link,  in  the  history  of  European  intellectual 
science.  progress,  between  philosophy  and  .science.  Inder 

his  teaching,  and  the  material  tendencies  of  the  Macedonian 
campaigns,  there  arose  a  class  of  men  in  Egypt  who  gave 
to  the  practical  a  development  it  had  never  before  attained  ; 
for  that  country,  upon  the  breaking  up  of  Alexander's 
dominion,  u.c.  323,  falling  into  the  possession  of  Ptolem\, 
p,,it.(.a  that  general  found  himself  at  once  the  deposi- 
pnsiti.moftiic  tary  of  spiritual  and  temporal  power.  Of  the 
icmies.  former,  it  is  to  be  remembered  that,  though  the 
conquest  by  Cambyses  had  given  it  a  severe  shock,  it  still 
net  only  survived,  but  displayed  no  inconsiderable  tokens 
of  strength.  Indeed,  it  is  well  known  that  the  surrender 
of  Egypt  to  Alexander  was  greatly  accelerated  by  hatred 
to  the  Persians,  the  Egyptians  welcoming  the  Macedonians 
as  their  deliverers.  In  this  movement  we  perceive  at 
once  the  authority  of  the  old  priesthood.  It  is  hard  to 
tear  up  by  the  roots  an  ancient  religion,  the  ramifications 
of  which  have  solidly  insinuated  themselves  among  a 
populace.  That  of  Egypt  had  already  been  the  growth  of 
more  than  three  thousand  years.  The  question  for  the  in- 
trusive Greek  sovereigns  to  solve  was  how  to  co-ordinate 
Thoy  co-oreii-  this  hoary  system  with  the  philosophical  scepti- 
n.ite  Kgyptiun  cism  that  had  issued  as  the  result  of  Greek 
{jreek"»copti-  thought.  With  singular  sagacity,  they  saw 
Cl!i'n-  that  this  might  be  accomplished  by  availing 

themselves  of  Orientalism,  the  common  point  of  contact  of 
the  two  systems ;  and  that,  by  its  formal  introduction  and 
development,  it  would  be  possible  not  only  to  enable  the 
philosophical  king,  to  whom  all  the  pagan  gods  were  alike 
equally  fictitious  and  equally  useful,  to  manifest  respect 
even  to  the 'ultra-heathenish  practices  of  the  Egyptian 
populace,  but,  what  was  of  far  more  moment,  to  establish 
an  apparent  concord  between  the  old  sacerdotal  Eg}-ptian 
party — strong  in  its  unparalleled  antiquity  ;  strong  in  its 
reminiscences;  strong  in  its  recent  persecutions  ;  strong  in 
its  Pharaonic  relics,  regarded  by  all  men  with  a  super- 
stitious or  reverent  awe — and  the  free-thinking  and 
versatile  Greeks.  The  occasion  was  like  some  others  in 
history,  some  even  in  our  own  times ;  a  small  but  energetic 


CH.  VI.]         THE  GREEK  AGE  OF  REASON.  187 

body  of  invaders  was  holding  in  subjection  an  ancient  and 
populous  country. 

To  give  practical  force  to  this  project,  a  grand  state 
institution  was  founded  at  Alexandria.  It  be-  The  Museum 
came  celebrated  as  the  Museum.  To  it,  as  to  a  of  Aiex- 
centre,  philosophers  from  all  parts  of  the  world  ai 
converged.  It  is  said  that  at  one  time  not  less  than  fourteen 
thousand  students  were  assembled  there.  Alexandria,  in 
confirmation  of  the  prophetic  foresight  of  the  great  soldier 
who  founded  it,  quickly  became  an  immense  metropolis, 
abounding  in  mercantile  and  manufacturing  activity.  As 
is  ever  the  case  with  such  cities,  its  higher  classes  were 
prodigal  and  dissipated,  its  lower  only  to  be  held  in 
restraint  by  armed  force.  Its  public  amusements  were 
such  as  might  be  expected — theatrical  shows,  music,  horse- 
racing.  In  the  solitude  of  such  a  crowd,  or  in  the  noise 
of  such  dissipation,  anyone  could  find  a  retreat — atheists 
who  had  been  banished  from  Athens,  devotees  from  the 
Ganges,  monotheistic  Jews,  blasphemers  from  Asia  Minor, 
indeed,  it  has  been  said  that  in  this  heterogeneous  com- 
munity blasphemy  was  hardly  looked  upon  as  a  crime ;  at 
the  worst,  it  was  no  more  than  an  unfortunate,  and,  it 
might  be,  an  innocent  mistake.  But,  since  uneducated 
men  need  some  solid  support  on  which  their  thoughts  may 
rest,  mere  abstract  doctrines  not  meeting  their  wants,  it 
became  necessary  to  provide  a  corporeal  representation 
for  this  eclectic  philosophical  Pantheism,  and  hence  the 
Ptolemies  were  obliged  to  restore,  or,  as  some  ,  Stabii8ljni(nt 
say,  to  import  the  worship  of  the  god  Serapis.  »t  the  worship 
Those  who  affirm  that  he  was  imported  say  that  of  SeraP:s- 
he  was  brought  from  Sinope ;  modern  Egyptian  scholars, 
however,  give  a  different  account.  As  setting  forth  the 
Pantheistic  doctrine  of  which  he  was  the  emblem,  his 
image,  subsequently  to  attain  world-wide  fame,  was  made 
of  all  kinds  of  metals  and  stones.  "  All  is  God."  But 
still  the  people,  with  that  instinct  which  other  nations  and 
ages  have  displayed,  hankered  after  a  female  divinity,  and 
chis  led  to  the  partial  restoration  of  the  worship  of  Isis.  It 
is  interesting  to  remark  how  the  humble  classes  never 
shaKe  oif  tne  j-eminiscences4  of  eariy  life,  leaning  rather  to 
the  maternal  than  to  the  paternal  Attachment.  Perhaps 


188  THE  GREEK  AGE  OP  REASON.         [df.  VI. 

it  is  for  that  reason  that  they  expect  a  more  favourable 
attention  to  their  supplications  from  a  female  divinity 
than  a  god.  Accordingly,  the  devotees  of  Isis  soon  out- 
numbered those  of  Serapis,  though  a  magnificent  temple 
had  been  built  for  him  at  Rhacotis,  in  the  quarter  adjoin- 
ing the  Museum,  and  his  worship  was  celebrated  with  more 
than  imperial  splendour.  In  subsequent  ages  the  worship 
of  Serapis  diifused  itself  throughout  the  Roman  empire, 
though  the  authorities — consuls,  senate,  emperors — know- 
ing well  the  idea  it  foreshadowed,  and  the  doctrine  it  was 
meant  to  imply,  used  their  utmost  power  to  put  it  down. 

The  Alexandrian  Museum  soon  assumed  the  character  of 
a  University.  In  it  those  great  libraries  were  collected, 
the  pride  and  boast  of  antiquity.  Demetrius  I'halareus 
TbeAiexan-  was  instructed  to  collect  all  the  writings  in 
dnan  libraries,  the  world.  So  powerfully  were  the  exertions 
of  himself  and  his  successors  enforced  by  the  govern- 
ment that  two  immense  libraries  were  procured.  They 
contained  700,000  volumes.  In  this  literary  and  scientific 
retreat,  supported  in  ease  and  even  in  luxury— luxury,  for 
allusions  to  the  sumptuous  dinners  have  descended  to  our 
times — the  philosophers  spent  their  time  in  mental  culture 
by  study,  or  mutual  improvement  by  debates.  The  king 
himself  conferred  appointments  to  these  positions  ;  in  later 
times,  the  Roman  emperors  succeeded  to  the  patronage,  the 
government  thereby  binding  in  golden  chains  intellect 
that  might  otherwise  have  proved  troublesome.  At  first, 
in  honour  of  the  ancient  religion,  the  presidency  of  the 
establishment  was  committed  to  an  Egyptian  priest ;  but 
in  the  course  of  time  that  policy  was  abandoned.  It  must 
not,  however,  be  imagined  that  the  duties  of  the  inmates 
were  limited  to  reading  and  rhetorical  display ;  a  far  more 
practical  character  was  imparted  to  them.  A 
gardens';  me-  botanical  garden,  in  connection  with  the  Museum, 
dissectin'-  oflfered  an  opportunity  to  those  who  were  in- 
house*;  ob-  terested  in  the  study  of  the  nature  of  plants  ;  a 
servatorien.  zool0gical  menagerie  afforded  like  facilities  to 
those  interested  in  animals.  Even  these  costly  establish- 
ments were  made  to  minister  to  the  luxury  of  the  times  :  in 
the  zoological  garden  pheasants  were  raised  for  the  ro3*al 
table.  Besides  these  elegant  and  fashionable  appointments, 


CH.  VI. j          THE  GREEK  AGE  OF  REASON.  189 

another,  of  a  more  forbidding  and  perhaps  repulsive  kind, 
was  added ;  an  establishment  which,  in  the  light  of 
our  times,  is  sufficient  to  confer  immortal  glory  on  those 
illustrious  and  high-minded  kings,  and  to  put  to  shame 
the  ignorance  and  superstition  of  many  modern  nations :  it 
was  an  anatomical  school,  suitably  provided  with  means 
for  the  dissection  of  the  human  body,  this  anatomical 
school  being  the  basis  of  a  medical  college  for  the  education 
of  physicians.  For  the  astronomers  Ptolemy  Euergetes 
placed  in  the  Square  Porch  an  equinoctial  and  a  solstitial 
armil,  the  graduated  limbs  of  these  instruments  being 
divided  into  degrees  and  sixths.  There  were  in  the 
observatory  stone  quadrants,  the  precursors  of  our  mural 
quadrants.  On  the  floor  a  meridian  line  was  drawn  for  the 
adjustment  of  the  instruments.  There  were  also  astrolabes 
and  dioptras.  Thus,  side  by  side,  almost  in  the  king's 
palace,  were  noble  provisions  for  the  cultivation  of  exact 
science  and  for  the  pursuit  of  light  literature.  Under  the 
same  roof  were  gathered  together  geometers,  astronomers, 
chemists,  mechanicians,  engineers.  There  were  also  poets, 
who  ministered  to  the  literary  wants  of  the  dissipated 
city — authors  who  could  write  verse,  not  only  in  correct 
metre,  but  in  all  kinds  of  fantastic  forms — trees,  hearts, 
and  eggs.  Here  met  together  the  literary  dandy  Life  in  the 
and  the  grim  theologian.  At  their  repasts  oc-  Museum- 
casionally  the  king  himself  would  preside,  enlivening  the 
moment  with  the  condescensions  of  royal  relaxation.  Thus, 
of  Philadelphus  it  is  stated  that  he  caused  to  be  presented 
to  the  Stoic  Spha-rus  a  dish  of  fruit  made  of  wax,  so  beau- 
tifully coloured  as  to  be  undistinguishable  from  the  natural, 
and  on  the  mortified  philosopher  detecting  too  late  the  fraud 
that  had  been  practised  upon  him,  inquired  what  he  now 
thought  of  the  maxim  of  his  sect  that  "  the  sage  is  never 
deceived  by  appearances."  Of  the  same  sovereign  it  is  re- 
lated that  he  received  the  translators  of  the  Septuagint 
Bible  with  the  highest  honours,  entertaining  them  at  his 
table.  Under  the  atmosphere  of  the  place  their  usual 
religious  ceremonial  was  laid  aside,  save  that  the  king 
coxirteously  requested  one  of  the  aged  priests  to  offer  an 
extempore  prayer.  It  is  naively  related  that  the  Alex- 
andrians present,  ever  quick  to  discern  rhetorical  merit, 


190  THE  GREEK  AGE  OF  REASON.  (dl.  VI. 

testified  their  estimation  of  the  performance  with  loml 
applause.  But  not  alone  did  literature  and  the  exact 
sciences  thus  find  protection.  As  it'  110  subjects  with  which 
the  human  mind  has  occupied  itself  can  be  unworthy  of 
investigation,  in  the  Museum  were  cultivated  the  more 
doubtful  arts,  magic  and  astrology.  Philadelphus,  who, 
toward  the  close  of  his  life,  was  haunted  with  an  intolerable 
dread  of  death,  devoted  himself  with  intense  assiduity  to 
the  discovery  of  the  elixir  of  life  and  to  alchemy.  Such  a 
comprehensive  organization  for  the  development  of  human 
knowledge  never  existed  in  the  world  before,  and,  consider- 
ing the  circumstances,  never  has  since.  To  bo  connected 
with  it  was  the  passport  to  the  highest  Alexandrian  so- 
ciety and  to  court  favour. 

To  the  Museum,  and,  it  has  been  asserted,  particularly  to 
Ptolemy  Philadelphus,  the  Christian  world  is  thus  Tinder 
obligation  for  the  ancient  version  of  the  Hebrew  Scriptures 
These  tua-  — ^e  Scptuagint.  Many  idle  stories  have  Ixvn 
glut  transia-  related  respecting  the  circumstances  under  which 
that  version  was  made,  as  that  the  seventy -two 
translators  by  whom  it  was  executed  were  confined  each  in 
a  separate  cell,  and,  when  their  work  was  finished,  the 
seventy-two  copies  were  found  identically  the  same,  word 
for  word.  From  this  it  was  supposed  that  the  inspiration 
of  this  translation  was  established.  ]f  any  proof  of  that 
kind  were  needed,  it  would  be  much  better  found  in 
the  fact  that  whenever  occasion  arises  in  the  New  Tes- 
tament of  quoting  from  the  Old,  it  is  usually  done  in  the 
words  of  the  Septuagint.  The  story  of  the  cells  underwent 
successive  improvements  among  the  early  fathers,  but  is 
now  rejected  as  a  fiction  ;  and,  indeed,  it  seems  probable 
that  the  translation  was  not  made  under  the  splendid 
circumstances  commonly  related,  but  merely  by  the  Alex- 
andrian Jews  for  their  own  convenience.  As  the  Septuagint 
grew  into  credit  among  the  Christians,  it  lost  favour  among 
the  Jews,  who  made  repeated  attempts  in  after  years  to 
supplant  it  by  new  versions,  such  as  those  of  Aquila,  of 
Theodotion,  of  Symmachus,  and  others.  From  the  first  the 
Syrian  Jews  had  looked  on  it  with  disapproval ;  they  even 
held  the  time  of  its  translation  as  a  day  of  mourning,  and 
vi'ith  malicious  grief  pointed  out  its  errors,  as,  for  instance, 


CH.  VI. j         THE  GREEK  AGE  OF  REASON  191 

they  affirmed  that  it  made  Methusaleh  live  until  after  the 
Deluge.  Ptolemy  treated  all  those  who  were  concerned  in 
providing  books  for  the  library  with  consideration,  re- 
munerating his  translators  and  transcribers  in  a  princely 
manner. 

But  the  modern  world  is  not  indebted  to  these  Egyptian 
kings  only  in  the  particular  here  referred  Lasting  in- 
to. The  Museum  made  an  impression  upon  the  fluenceofthe 
intellectual  career  of  Europe  so  powerful  and  theological 
enduring  that  we  still  enjoy  its  results.  That  and  *cien'ific- 
impression  was  twofold,  theological  and  physical.  The 
dialectical  spirit  and  literary  culture  diffused  among  the 
Alexandrians  prepared  that  people,  beyond  all  others,  for 
the  reception  of  Christianity.  Foi  thirty  centuries  the 
Egyptians  had  been  familiar  with  the  conception  of  a 
triune  God.  There  was  hardly  a  city  of  any  note  withoiit 
its  particular  triad.  Here  it  was  Amum,  Maut,  and 
Khonso ;  there  Osiris,  Isis,  and  Horus.  The  apostolic 
missionaries,  when  they  reached  Alexandria,  found  a  people 
ready  to  appreciate  the  profoundest  mysteries.  But  with 
these  advantages  came  great  evils.  The  Trinitarian  disputes, 
which  subsequently  deluged  the  world  with  blood,  had 
their  starting-point  and  focus  in  Alexandria.  In  that  city 
Arius  and  Athanasitis  dwelt.  There  originated  that 
desperate  conflict  which  compelled  Constantino  the  Great 
to  summon  the  Council  of  Nicea,  to  settle,  by  a  formulary 
or  creed,  the  essentials  of  our  faith. 

But  it  was  not  alone  as  regards  theology  that  Alexandria 
exerted  a  power  on  subsequent  ages  .  her  influence  was  as 
strongly  marked  in  the  impression  it  gave  to  science. 
Astronomical  observatories,  chemical  laboratories,  libraries, 
dissecting-houses,  were  not  in  vain.  There  went  forth 
from  them  a  spirit  powerful  enough  to  tincture  all  future 
times.  Nothing  like  the  Alexandrian  Museum  was  ever 
called  into  existence  in  Greece  or  Rome,  even  in  their 
palmiest  days.  It  is  the  unique  and  noble  memorial  of  the 
dynasty  of  the  Ptolemies,  who  have  thereby  laid  the  whole 
human  race  under  obligations,  and  vindicated  their  title  to 
be  regarded  as  a  most  illustrious  line  of  kings.  The 
Museum  was,  in  truth,  an  attempt  at  the  organization  of 
human  knowledge,  both  for  its  development  and  its 


192  THE  GREEK   AGB   OF   REASON'.  [CH.  VI. 

diffusion.  It  was  conceived  and  executed  in  a  practical 
manner  worthy  of  Alexander.  And  though,  in  the  night 
through  which  Europe  lias  been  passing — a  night  full  of 
dreams  and  delusions  —men  have  not  entertained  a  right 
estimate  of  the  spirit  in  which  that  great  institution  was 
founded,  and  the  work  it  accomplished,  its  glories  being 
eclipsed  l>y  darker  and  more  unworthy  things,  the  time  is 
approaching  when  its  action  on  the  course  of  human  events 
will  be  better  understood,  and  its  influences  on  European 
civilization  more  clearly  discerned. 

Thus,  then,  about  the  beginning  of  the  third  century 
l>efore  Christ,  in  consequence  of  the  Macedonian  campaign, 
The  Museum  which  had  brought  the  Greeks  into  contact  with 
was  the  issue  the  ancient  cirilization  of  Asia,  a  great  degree 
.Ionian  cam-  of  intellectual  activity  was  manifested  in  Egypt. 
paigns.  Qn  the  gite  of  the  village  of  Rhacotis,  once  held 

as  an  Egyptian  post  to  prevent  the  ingress  of  strangers, 
the  Macedonians  erected  that  city  which  was  to  be  the 
entrepot  of  the  commerce  of  the  East  and  West,  and  to 
transmit  an  illustrious  name  to  the  latest  generations. 
Her  long  career  of  commercial  prosperity,  her  commanding 
position  as  respects  the  material  interests  of  the  world, 
justified  the  statesmanship  of  her  founder,  and  the  intel- 
lectual glory  which  has  gathered  round  her  has  given  an 
enduring  lustre  to  his  name. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  philosophical  activity 
here  alluded  to  was  the  direct  issue  of  the  political  and 
military  event  to  which  we  have  referred  it.  The  tastes 
and  genius  of  Alexander  were  manifested  by  his  relations 
to  Aristotle,  whose  studies  in  natural  history  he  promoted 
by  the  collection  of  a  menagerie  ;  and  in  astronomy,  by 
transmitting  to  him,  through  Callisthenes,  the  records  of 
Babylonian  observations  extending  over  1903  years.  His 
biography,  as  we  have  seen,  shows  a  personal  interest  in 
the  cultivation  of  such  studies.  In  this  particular  other 
great  soldiers  have  resembled  him ;  and  perhaps  it  may  bo 
inferred  that  the  practical  habit  of  thought  and  accom- 
modation of  theory  to  the  actual  purposes  of  life  pre- 
eminently required  by  their  profession,  leads  them  spon- 
taneously to  decline  speculative  uncertainties,  and  to  be 
satisfied  only  with  things  that  are  real  and  exact. 


CH.  VI. j         THE  GREEK  AGE  OP  KEASON.  193 

Under  the  inspiration  of  the  system  of  Alexander,  and 
guided  by  the  suggestions  of  certain  great  men  who  had 
caught  the  spirit  of  the  times,  the  Egyptian  kings  thus 
created,  under  their  own  immediate  auspices,  the  Museum. 
State  policy,  operating  in  the  manner  I  have  previously 
described,  furnished  them  with  an  additional  theological 
reason  for  founding  this  establishment.  In  the  Macedonian 
campaign  a  vast  amount  of  engineering  and  mathematical 
talent  had  been  necessarily  stimulated  into  existence,  for 
great  armies  cannot  be  handled,  great  marches  cannot  be 
made,  nor  great  battles  fought  without  that  result.  When 
the  period  of  energetic  action  was  over,  and  to  the  military 
operations  succeeded  comparative  repose  and  temporary 
moments  of  peace,  the  talent  thus  called  forth  found 
occupation  in  the  way  most  congenial  to  it  by  cultivating 
mathematical  and  physical  studies.  In  Alexandria,  itself 
a  monument  of  engineering  and  architectural  skill,  soon 
were  to  be  found  men  whose  names  were  destined  for 
futurity — Apollonius,  Eratosthenes,  Manetho.  Of  these, 
one  may  be  selected  for  the  remark  that,  while  The  it 
speculative  philosophers  were  occupying  them-  im-n  it  i> »- 
selves  with  discussions  respecting  the  criterion  of  d 
truth,  and,  upon  the  whole,  coming  to  the  conclusion  that  no 
such  thing  existed,  and  that,  if  the  truth  was  actually  in  the 
possession  of  man,  he  had  no  means  of  knowing  it,  Euclid  - 
of  Alexandria  was  writing  an  immortal  work,  destined  to 
challenge  contradiction  from  the  whole  human  race,  and  to 
make  good  its  title  as  the  representative  of  absolute  and 
undeniable  truth — truth  not  to  be  gainsaid  in  any  nation 
or  at  any  time.  We  still  use  the  geometry  of  Euclid  in 
our  schools. 

It  is  said  that  Euclid  opened  a  geometrical  school  in 
Alexandria  about  B.C.  300.  He  occupied  himself  not  only 
with  mathematical,  but  also  with  physical  investigation. 
Besides  many  works  of  the  former  class  supposed  The  writings 
to  have  been  written  by  him,  as  on  Fallacies,  of  Euclid- 
Conic  Sections,  Divisions,  Porism<,  Data,  there  are  imptxted 
to  him  treatises  on  Harmonics,  Optics,  and  Catoptrics,  the 
two  latter  subjects  being  discussed,  agreeably  to  the  views  of 
those  times,  on  the  hypothesis  of  rays  issuing  from  the  eye 
to  the  object,  instead  of  passing,  as  we  consider  them  to  do, 

VOL.  i.— 10 


194  THE  GREEK  AGE  OF  REASON.         [CH.  VI. 

from  the  object  to  the  eye.  It  is,  however,  on  the  ex- 
cellencies of  his  Elements  of  Geometry  that  the  durable 
reputation  of  Euclid  depends  ;  and  though  the  hypercriti- 
cism  of  modern  mathematicians  has  perhaps  successfully 
maintained  such  objections  against  them  as  that  they 
might  have  been  more  precise  in  their  axioms,  that  they 
sometimes  assume  what  might  be  proved,  that  they  are 
occasionally  redundant,  and  their  arrangement  sometimes 
imperfect,  yet  they  still  maintain  their  ground  as  a  model 
of  extreme  accuracy,  of  perspicuity,  and  as  a  standard  of 
exact  demonstration.  They  were  employed  universally  by 
the  Greeks,  and,  in  subsequent  ages,  were  translated  and 
preserved  by  the  Arabs. 

(jJreat  as  is  the  fame  of  Euclid,  it  is  eclipsed  by  that  of 
Archimedes  the  Syracusan,  born  B.C.  287,  whoso 

ihe  writings  .  .          •>  .  . 

mid  works  of  connection  with  Egyptian  science  is  not  alone 
Archimedes,  testified  by  tradition,  but  also  by  such  facts  as 
his  acknowledged  friendship  with  Con  on  of  Alexandria, 
and  his  invention  of  the  screw  still  bearing  his  name, 
intended  for  raising  the  waters  of  the  Kile.  Among  his 
mathematical  works,  the  most  interesting,  perhaps,  in  his 
own  estimation,  as  wo  may  judge  from  the  incident  that  ho 
directed  the  diagram  thereof  to  be  engraved  on  his  tomb- 
stone, was  his  demonstration  that  the  solid  content  of  a 
sphere  is  two-thirds  that  of  its  circumscribing  cylinder. 
It  was  by  this  mark  that  Cicero,  when  Qusestor  of  Sicily, 
discovered  the  tomb  of  Archimedes  grown  over  with  weeds. 
This  theorem  was,  however,  only  one  of  a  large  number  of 
a  like  kind,  which  ho  treated  of  in  his  two  books  on  the 
sphere  and  cylinder  in  an  equally  masterly  manner,  and 
with  equal  success.  His  position  as  a  geometer  is  perhaps 
better  understood  from  the  assertion  made  respecting  him 
by  a  modern  mathematician,  that  he  came  as  near  to  the 
discovery  of  the  Differential  Calculus  as  can  be  done 
without  the  aid  of  algebraic  transformations.  Among  the 
special  problems  ho  treated  of  may  be  mentioned  the 
quadrature  of  the  circle,  his  determination  of  the  ratio  of 
the  circumference  to  the  diameter  being  between  3-1428 
and  3'1408,  the  true  value,  as  is  now  known,  being  3*1416 
nearly.  He  also  wrote  on  Conoids  and  Spheroids,  and  upon 
that  spiral  still  passing  under  his  name,  the  genesis  of  which 


CH.  VI.]         THE  GREEK  AGE  OF  RKASOX.  195 

had  been  suggested  to  him  by  Conon.  In  his  work  entitled 
"  Psamrnites  "  he  alludes  to  the  astronomical  system  subse- 
quently established  by  Copernicus,  whose  name  has  been 
given  to  it.  He  also  mentions  the  attempts  which  had 
been  made  to  measure  the  size  of  the  earth ;  the  chief 
object  of  the  work  being,  however,  to  prove  not  only  that 
the  sands  upon  the  sea-shore  can  be  numbered,  but  even 
those  required  to  fill  the  entire  space  within  the  sphere  of 
the  fixed  stars ;  the  result  being,  according  to  our  system 
of  arithmetic,  a  less  number  than  is  expressed  by  unity 
followed  by  C3  ciphers.  Such  a  book  is  the  sport  of  a 
geometrical  giant  wantonly  amusing  himself  with  his 
strength.  Among  his  mathematical  investigations  must 
not  be  omitted  the  quadrature  of  the  parabola.  His  fame 
depends,  however,  not  so  much  on  his  mathematical 
triumphs  as  upon  his  brilliant  discoveries  in  physics  and 
his  mechanical  inventions.  How  he  laid  the  foundation 
of  Hydrostatics  is  familiar  to  everyone,  through  the  story 
of  Hiero's  crown.  A  certain  artisan  having  adulterated 
the  gold  given  him  by  King  Hiero  to  form  a  crown, 
Archimedes  discovered  while  he  was  accidentally  stepping 
into  a  bath,  that  the  falsification  might  be  detected,  and 
thereby  invented  the  method  for  the  determination  of 
specific  gravity.  From  these  investigations  he  was 
naturally  led  to  the  consideration  of  the  equilibrium  of 
floating  bodies ;  but  his  grand  achievement  in  the 
mechanical  direction  was  his  discovery  of  the  true  theory 
of  the  lever :  his  surprising  merit  in  these  respects  is  de- 
monstrated by  the  fact  that  no  advance  was  made  in  theo- 
retical mechanics  during  the  eighteen  centuries  interven- 
ing between  him  and  Leonardo  da  Vinci.  Of  minor  matters 
not  fewer  than  forty  mechanical  inventions  have  been 
attributed  to  him.  Among  these  are  the  endless  screw, 
the  screw  pump,  a  hydraulic  organ,,  and  burning  mirrors. 
His  genius  is  well  indicated  by  the  saying  popularly  at- 
tributed to  him,  "  Give  me  whereon  to  stand,  and  I  will 
move  the  earth,"  and  by  the  anecdotes  told  of  his  exertions 
against  Marcellus  during  the  siege  of  Syracuse ;  his 
invention  of  catapults  and  other  engines  for  throwing 
projectiles,  as  darts  and  heavy  stones;  claws  which, 
reaching  over  the  walls,  lifted  up  into  the  air  ships  and 


196  THE  GREEK  AGE  OF  REASON.         [CU.  VL 

their  crews,  and  then  suddenly  dropped  them  into  the  sea  ; 
burning  mirrors,  by  which,  at  a  great  distance,  the  Roman 
fleet  was  set  on  fire.  It  is  related  that  Marcellus,  honouring 
his  intellect,  gave  the  strictest  orders  that  no  harm  should 
be  done  to  him  at  the  taking  of  the  town,  and  that  he  was 
killed,  unfortunately,  by  an  ignorant  soldier — unfortu- 
nately, for  Europe  was  not  able  to  produce  his  equal  for 
nearly  two  thousand  years. 

Eratosthenes  was  contemporary  with  Archimedes.  He 
was  born  at  Gyrene,  B.C.  276.  The  care  of  the  library 
The  writings  aPPears  *°  have  been  committed  to  him  by 
•lid  works  of  Euergetes;  but  his  attention  was  more  specially 
Eratosthenes.  Directed  to  mathematical,  astronomical,  geo- 
graphical, and  historical  pursuits.  The  work  entitled 
"  Catasterisms,"  doubtfully  imputed  to  him,  is  a  catalogue  of 
475  of  the  principal  stars ;  but  it  was  probably  intended 
for  nothing  more  than  a  manual.  He  also  is  said  to  have 
written  a  poem  upon  terrestrial  zones.  Among  his  im- 
portant geographical  labours  may  be  mentioned  his 
determination  of  the  interval  between  the  tropics.  He 
found  it  to  be  eleven  eighty-thirds  of  the  circumference. 
He  also  attempted  the  measurement  of  the  size  of  the 
earth  by  ascertaining  the  distance  between  Alexandria 
and  Syene,  the  difference  of  latitude  between  which  he 
had  found  to  be  one-fiftieth  of  the  earth's  circumference. 
It  was  his  object  to  free  geography  from  the  legends  with 
which  the  superstition  of  ages  had  adorned  and  oppressed 
it.  In  effecting  this  he  well  deserves  the  tribute  paid  to 
him  by  Humboldt,  the  modern  who  of  all  others  could 
best  appreciate  his  labours.  He  considered  the  articula- 
tion and  expansion  of  continents  ;  the  position  of  mountain 
chains ;  the  action  of  clouds ;  the  geological  submersion  of 
lands ;  the  elevation  of  ancient  sea-beds ;  the  opening  of  the 
Dardanelles  and  of  the  Straits  of  Gibraltar  ;  the  relations 
of  the  Euxine  Sea ;  the  problem  of  the  equal  level  of  the 
circumfluous  ocean;  and  the  necessary  existence  of  a 
mountain  chain  running  through  Asia  in  the  diaphragm 
of  Dicaearchus.  What  an  advance  is  all  this  beyond  the 
meditations  of  Thales!  Herein  we  see  the  practical 
tendencies  of  the  Macedonia^  wars.  In  his  astronomical 
observations  he  had  the  advantage  of  using  the  arrnila 


CH.  VI.J         THE  GREEK  AGE  OF  REASON.  197 

and  other  instruments  in  the  Observatory.  ITo  ascer 
tained  that  the  direction  of  terrestrial  gravity  is  not 
constant,  but  that  the  verticals  converge.  He  composed  a 
complete  systematic  description  of  the  earth  in  three 
books — physical,  mathematical,  historical — accompanied 
by  a  map  of  all  the  parts  then  known.  Of  his  skill  as  a 
geometer,  his  solution  of  the  problem  of  two  mean  pro- 
portionals, still  extant,  offers  ample  evidence ;  and  it  is 
only  of  late  years  that  the  fragments  remaining  of  his 
Chronicles  of  the  Theban  Kings  have  been  properly  ap- 
preciated. He  hoped  to  free  history  as  well  as  geography 
from  the  myths  that  deform  it,  a  task  which  the  prejudices 
and  interests  of  man  will  never  permit  to  be  accomplished. 
Some  amusing  anecdotes  of  his  opinions  in  these  respects 
have  descended  to  us.  He  ventured  to  doubt  the  historical 
truth  of  the  Homeric  legends.  "  I  will  believe  in  it  when 
I  have  been  shown  the  currier  who  made  the  wind-bags 
which  Ulysses  on  his  homeward  voyage  received  from 
^Eolus."  It  is  said  that,  having  attained  the  age  of 
eighty  years,  he  became  weary  of  life,  and  put  an  end  to 
himself  by  voluntary  starvation. 

I  shall  here  pause  to  make  a  few  remarks  suggested  by 
the  chronological  and  astronomical  works  of  chronology  ot 
Eratosthenes.  Our  current  chronology  was  the  Eratosthenes. 
offspring  of  erroneous  theological  considerations,  the 
nature  of  which  required  not  only  a  short  historical  term  for 
the  various  nations  of  antiquity,  but  even  for  the  existence 
of  man  upon  the  globe.  This  necessity  appears  to  have 
been  chiefly  experienced  in  the  attempt  to  exalt  certain 
facts  in  the  history  of  the  Hebrews  from  their  subordinate 
position  in  human  affairs,  and,  indeed,  to  give  the  whole 
of  that  history  an  exaggerated  value.  This  was  done  in  a 
double  way :  by  elevating  Hebrew  history  from  its  true 
grade,  and  depreciating  or  falsifying  that  of  other  nations. 
Among  those  who  have  been  guilty  of  this  literary  offence, 
the  name  of  the  celebrated  Eusebius,  the  Bishop  of 
Csesarea  in  the  time  of  Constantino,  should  be  designated, 
since  in  his  chronography  and  synchronal  tables  he 
purposely  "  perverted  chronology  for  the  sake  of  making 
synchronisms  "  (Bunsen).  It  is  true,  as  Niebuhr  asserts, 
"  He  is  a  very  dishonest  writer."  To  a  great  extent,  the 


198  THE  GREEK  AGE  OF  REASON.         (CH.  VI 

superseding  of  the  Egyptian  annals  was  brought  about  by 
his  influence.  It  was  forgotten,  however,  that  of  all 
things  chronology  is  the  least  suited  to  be  an  object  of 
inspiration;  and  that,  though  men  may  bo  wholly 
indifferent  to  truth  for  its  own  sake,  and  consider  it  not 
improper  to  wrest  it  unscrupulously  to  what  they  may 
suppose  to  be  a  just  purpose,  yet  that  it  will  vindicate  itself 
at  last.  It  is  impossible  to  succeed  completely  in  perverting 
the  history  of  a  nation  which  has  left  numerous  enduring 
records.  Egypt  offers  us  testimonials  reaching  over  five 
thousand  years.  As  Bunsen  remarks,  from  the  known 
portion  of  the  curve  of  history  we  may  determine  tho 
whole.  The  Egyptians,  old  as  they  are,  belong  to  the 
middle  ages  of  mankind,  for  there  is  a  period  antecedent 
to  monumental  history,  or  indeed,  to  history  of  any  kind, 
during  which  language  and  mythology  are  formed,  for 
these  must  exist  prior  to  all  political  institutions,  all  art, 
all  science.  Even  at  the  first  moment  that  we  gain  a 
glimpse  of  the  state  of  Egypt  she  had  attained  a  high 
intellectual  condition,  as  is  proved  by  the  fact  that  her 
system  of  hieroglyphics  was  perfected  before  the  fourth 
dynasty.  It  continued  unchanged  until  the  time  of 
Psammetichus.  A  stationary  condition  of  language  and 
writing  for  thousands  of  years  necessarily  implies  a  long 
and  very  remote  period  of  active  improvement  and 
advance.  It  was  doubtless  such  a  general  consideration, 
rather  than  a  positive  knowledge  of  the  fact,  which  led 
the  Greeks  to  assert  that  the  introduction  of  geometry 
into  Egypt  must  be  attributed  to  kings  before  the  times 
of  Menes.  Not  alone  do  her  artificial  monuments  attest 
for  that  country  an  extreme  antiquity ;  she  is  herself  her 
own  witness ;  for,  though  the  Nile  raises  its  bed  only  four 
feet  in  a  thousand  years,  all  the  alluvial  portion  of  Egypt 
has  been  deposited  from  the  waters  of  that  river.  A 
natural  register  thus  re-enforces  the  written  records,  and 
both  together  compose  a  body  of  evidence  not  to  be 
gainsaid.  Thus  the  depth  of  muddy  silt  accumulated 
round  the  pedestals  of  monuments  is  an  irreproachable 
index  of  their  age.  In  tho  eminent  position  he  occupied, 
Eusebius  might  succeed  in  perverting  the  received  book- 
chronology;  but  he  had  no  power  to  make  tho  endless 


CH.  VI.]         THE  GREEK  AGE  OF  REASON.  199 

trade-wind  that  sweeps  over  the  tropical  Pacific  blow  a 
day  more  or  a  day  less ;  none  to  change  the  weight  of 
water  precipitated  from  it  by  the  African  mountains ; 
none  to  arrest  the  annual  mass  of  mud  brought  down  by 
the  river.  It  is  by  collating  such  different  orders  of 
evidence  together — the  natural  and  the  monumental,  the 
latter  gaining  strength  every  year  from  the  cultivation  of 
hieroglyphic  studies — that  we  begin  to  discern  the  true 
Egyptian  chronology,  and  to  put  confidence  in  the 
fragments  that  remain  of  Eratosthenes  and  Manetho. 

At  the  time  of  which  we  are  speaking — the  time  of 
Eratosthenes — general  ideas  had  been  attained  to  respecting 
the  doctrine  of  the  sphere,  its  poles,  axis,  the  equator, 
arctic  and  antarctic  circles,  equinoctial  points,  Astronomy  of 
solstices,  colures,  horizon,  etc.  No  one  com-  Eratusthenes. 
petent  to  form  an  opinion  any  longer  entertained  a  doubt 
respecting  the  globular  form  of  the  earth,  the  arguments 
adduced  in  support  of  that  fact  being  such  as  are  still 
popularly  resorted  to  —  the  different  positions  of  the 
horizon  at  different  places,  the  changes  in  elevation  of  the 
pole,  the  phenomena  of  eclipses,  and  the  gradual  dis- 
appearance of  ships  as  they  sail  from  us.  As  to  eclipses, 
once  looked  upon  with  superstitious  awe,  their  true  causes 
had  not  only  been  assigned,  but  their  periodicities  so  well 
ascertained  that  predictions  of  their  occurrence  could  be 
made.  The  Babylonians  had  thus  long  known  that  after 
a  cycle  of  223  lunations  the  eclipses  of  the  moon  return. 
The  mechanism  of  the  phases  of  that  satellite  Att<>mpts  of 
was  clearly  understood.  Indeed,  Aristarchus  Anstard.us 
of  Samos  attempted  to  ascertain  the  distance  of  disul'ic. -of the 
the  sun  from  the  earth  on  the  principle  of  sun- 
observing  the  moon  when  she  is  dichotomized,  a  method 
quite  significant  of  the  knowledge  of  the  time,  though  in 
practice  untrustworthy  ;  Aristarchus  thus  finding  that  the 
sun's  distance  is  eighteen  times  that  of  the  moon,  whereas 
it  is  in  reality  400.  In  like  manner,  in  a  general  way, 
pretty  clear  notions  were  entertained  of  the  climatic 
distribution  of  heat  upon  the  earth,  exaggerated,  however, 
in  this  respect,  that  the  torrid  zone  was  believed  to  be 
too  hot  for  human  life,  and  the  frigid  too  cold.  Observa- 
tions, as  good  as  could  be  made  by  simple  instruments, 


200  THE  GREEK  AGE  OF  REASON.         |C:?.  VI. 

had  not  only  demonstrated  in  a  general  manner  tho 
progressions,  retrogradations  and  stations  of  the  planets, 
but  attempts  had  been  made  to  account  f  jr,  or  rather  to 
represent  them,  by  the  aid  of  epicycles. 

It  was  thus  in  Alexandria,  under  the  Ptolemies,  that 
modern  astronomy  arose.  Ptolemy  Soter,  the  founder 
of  this  line  of  kings,  was  not  only  a  patron  of  science, 
but  likewise  an  author.  He  composed  a  history  of  the 
campaigns  of  Alexander.  Under  him  the  collection  of  the 
Biography  of  library  was  commenced,  probably  soon  after  the 
ihe  Ptolemies,  defeat  of  Antigonus  at  the  battle  of  Ipsus,  B.C. 
301.  The  museum  is  due  to  his  son  Ptolemy  Philadelphia, 
who  not  only  patronized  learning  in  his  own  dominions, 
but  likewise  endeavoured  to  extend  the  boundaries  of 
human  knowledge  in  other  quarters.  Thus  he  sent  an 
expedition  under  his  admiral  Timostheues  as  far  as 
Madagascar.  Of  the  succeeding  Ptolemies,  Euergetes  and 
Philopator  were  both  very  able  men,  though  the  later  was 
a  bad  one ;  he  murdered  his  father,  and  perpetrated  many 
horrors  in  Alexandria.  Epiphanes,  succeeding  his  father 
when  only  five  years  old,  was  placed  by  his  guardians 
under  the  protection  of  Rome,  thus  furnishing  to  the 
ambitious  republic  a  pretence  for  interfering  in  the  affairs 
of  Egypt.  Tho  same  policy  was  continued  during  tho 
reign  of  his  son  Philometor,  who,  iipon  the  whole,  was  an 
able  and  good  king.  Even  Physcon,  who  succeeded  in 
B.C.  146,  and  who  is  described  as  sensual,  corpulent,  and 
cruel— cruel,  for  he  cut  off  the  head,  hands,  and  feet  of  his 
son,  and  sent  them  to  Cleopatra  his  wife — could  not  resist 
the  inspirations  to  which  the  policy  of  his  ancestors, 
continued  for  nearly  two  centuries,  had  given  birth,  but 
was  an  effective  promoter  of  literature  and  the  arts,  and 
himself  the  author  of  an  historical  work.  A  like  inclina- 
tion was  displayed  by  his  successors,  Lathyrus  and 
Auletes,  the  name  of  the  latter  indicating  his  proficiency 
in  music.  The  surnames  under  which  all  these  Ptolemies 
pass  were  nicknames,  or  titles  of  derision  imposed  upon 
them  by  their  giddy  and  t-atirical  Alexandrian  subjects. 
The  political  state  of  Alexandria  was  significantly  said  to 
be  a  tyranny  tempered  bv  ridicule.  The  dynasty  ended 
in  tho  person  of  the  celebrated  Cleopatra,  who,  after  the 


CH.  VI. J  THE   GREEK   AGE   OF   IIEASON.  201 

battle  of  Actium,  caused  herself,  as  is  related  in  the 
legends,  to  be  bitten  by  an  asp.  She  took  poison  that  she 
might  not  fall  captive  to  Octavianus,  and  be  led  in  his 
triumph  through  the  streets  of  Koine. 

If  we  possessed  a  complete  and  unbiassed  history  of 
these  Greek  kings,  it  would  doubtless  uphold  their  title 
to  be  regarded  as  the  most  illustrious  of  all  ancient 
sovereigns.  Even  after  their  political  power  had  passed 
into  the  hands  of  the  Romans — a  nation  who  had  no  regard 
to  truth  and  to  right — and  philosophy,  in  its  old  age,  had 
become  extinguished  or  eclipsed  by  the  faith  of  the  later 
Caesars,  enforced  by  an  unscrupulous  use  of  their  power,  so 
strong  was  the  vitality  of  the  intellectual  germ  they  had 
fostered,  that,  though  compelled  to  lie  dormant  for 
centuries,  it  shot  up  vigorously  on  the  first  occasion  that 
favouring  circumstances  allowed. 

This    Egyptian    dynasty   extended    its  protection  and 
patronage   to  literature    as    well  as   to  science.      Thus 
Philadelphus    did  not  consider  it  beneath  him  to   count 
among  his  personal  friends  the  poet  Callimachus, 
who  had  written  a  treatise  on  birds,  and  honour-  tronfzJTitera- 
ably  maintained  himself  by  keeping  a  school  in  ture  ?s  wel1 
Alexandria.     The  court  of  that  sovereign  was, 
moreover,  adorned  by  a  constellation  of  seven  poets,  to 
which  the  gay  Alexandrians  gave  the  nickname  of   the 
Pleiades.     They  are  said  to  have  been  Lycophron,  Theo- 
critus, Callimachus,  Aratus,  Apollonius  Rhodius,  Nicander, 
and  Homer  the  son  of  Macro.     Among  them  may  be  dis- 
tinguished  Lycophron,  whose   work,  entitled  Cassandra, 
still  remains ;   and   Theocritus,  whose  exquisite  bucolics 
prove  how  sweet  a  poet  he  was. 

To  return  to  the  scientific  movement.  The  school  of 
Euclid  was  worthily  represented  in  the  time  of  Euergetes 
by  Apollonius  Pergaeus,  forty  years  later  than  The  writings 
Archimedes.  He  excelled  both  in  the  mathe-  of  Apollonius. 
matical  and  physical  department.  His  chief  work  was  a 
treatise  on  Conic  Sections.  It  is  said  that  he  was  the  first 
to  introduce  the  words  ellipse  and  hyperbola.  So  late  as 
the  eleventh  century  his  complete  works  were  extant  in 
Arabic.  Modern  geometers  describe  him  as  handling  his 
subjects  with  less  power  than  his  great  predecessor 

10* 


202  THE  GKEEK  AGE  OF  REASON.         [CH.  VI. 

Archimedes,  but  nevertheless  displaying  extreme  precision 
and  beauty  in  his  methods.  His  fifth  book,  on  Maxima 
and  Minima,  is  to  be  regarded  as  one  of  the  highest  efforts 
of  Greek  geometry.  As  an  example  of  his  physical  in- 
quiries may  be  mentioned  his  invention  of  a  clock. 

Fifty  years  after  Apollouius,  B.C.  160-125,  we  meet  with 
the  great  astronomer  Hipparchus.  He  does  not  appear  to 
have  made  observations  himself  in  Alexandria,  but  he  uses 
those  of  Aristyllus  and  Timochares  of  that  place.  Indeed, 
his  great  discovery  of  the  precession  of  the  equinoxes  was 
essentially  founded  on  the  discussion  of  the  Alexandrian 
observations  on  Spica  Virginis  made  by  Timochares.  In 
pure  mathematics  he  gave  methods  for  solving  all  triangles 
The  writings  plane  an^  spherical :  he  also  constructed  a  table 
of  aippar-  of  chords.  In  astronomy,  besides  his  capital 

discovery  of  the  precession  of  the  equinoxes  just 
mentioned,  ho  also  determined  the  first  inequality  of  tho 
moon,  the  equation  of  the  centre,  and  all  but  anticipated 
Ptolemy  in  the  discovery  of  tho  evection.  To  him  also 
must  be  attributed  the  establishment  of  the  theory  of 
epicycles  and  eccentrics,  a  geometrical  conception  for  the 
purpose  of  resolving  the  apparent  motions  of  the  heavenly 
bodies,  on  the  principle  of  circular  movement.  In  the  case 
The  theory  of  °^  the  sun  and  moon,  Hipparchus  succeeded  in 
rpicyciw  and  the  application  of  that  theory,  and  indicated 

that  it  might  be  adapted  to  the  planets.  Though 
never  intended  as  a  representation  of  the  actual  motions  of 
the  heavenly  bodies,  it  maintained  its  ground  until  the  era 
of  Kepler  and  Newton,  when  tho  heliocentric  doctrine,  and 
that  of  elliptic  motions,  were  incontestably  established. 
Even  Newton  himself,  in  the  37th  proposition  of  the  third 
book  of  tho  "Principia,"  availed  himself  of  its  aid.  Hippar- 
chus also  undertook  to  make  a  register  of  the  stars  by  the 
method  of  alineations — that  is,  by  indicating  those  which 
were  in  the  same  apparent  straight  line.  The  number  of 
stars  catalogued  by  him  was  1,080.  If  he  thus  depicted  the 
aspect  of  the  sky  for  his  times,  ho  also  endeavoured  to  do 
the  same  for  the  surface  of  the  earth  by  marking  the  position 
of  towns  and  other  places  by  lines  of  latitude  and  longitude. 
Subsequently  to  Hipparchus,  we  find  the  astronomers 
Geminus  and  Cleomedes ;  their  fame,  however,  is  totally 


CU.  VI.]         THE  GREEK  AGE  OF  REASON.  203 

eclipsed  by  that  of  Ptolemy,  A.D.  138,  the  author  of  the 
great  work  "  Syntaxis,"  or  the  mathematical  con-  The  writings 
struction  of  the  heavens — a  work  fully  deserving  of  Pt°leiny. 
the  epithet  which  has  been  bestowed  upon  it,  "  a  noble  ex- 
position of  the  mathematical  theory  of  epicycles  and 
eccentrics."  It  was  translated  by  the  Arabians  after  the 
Mohammedan  conquest  of  Egypt ;  and,  under  the  title  of 
Almagest,  was  received  by  them  as  the  highest  authority 
on  the  mechanism  and  phenomena  of  the  universe.  It 
maintained  its  ground  in  Europe  in  the  same  eminent 
position  for  nearly  fifteen  hundred  years,  justifying  the 
encomium  of  Synesius  on  the  institution  which  gave  it 
birth,  "  the  divine  school  of  Alexandria."  The  Almagest 
commences  with  the  doctrine  that  the  earth  is  His  gnat 
globular  and  fixed  in  space;  it  describes  the  work-  th° 
construction  of  a  table  of  chords  and  instruments  construction 
for  observing  the  solstices,  and  deduces  the  of  the  heavens. 
obliquity  of  the  ecliptic.  It  finds  terrestrial  latitudes  by 
the  gnomon  ;  describes  climates ;  shows  how  ordinary  may 
be  converted  into  sidereal  time;  gives  reasons  for  pre- 
ferring the  tropical  to  the  sidereal  year  ?  furnishes  the 
solar  theory  on  the  principle  of  the  sun's  orbit  being  a 
simple  eccentric ;  explains  the  equation  of  time ;  advances 
to  the  discussion  of  the  motions  of  the  moon  ;  treats  of  the 
first  inequality,  of  her  eclipses,  and  the  motion  of  the  node. 
It  then  gives  Ptolemy's  own  great  discovery — that  which 
has  made  his  name  immortal — the  discovery  of  the  moon's 
evection  or  second  inequality,  reducing  it  to  the  epicyclic 
theory.  It  attempts  the  determination  of  the  distances  of 
the  sun  and  moon  from  the  earth,  with,  however,  only 
partial  success,  since  it  makes  the  sun's  distance  but  one- 
twentieth  of  the  real  amount.  It  considers  the  precession 
of  the  equinoxes,  the  discovery  of  Hipparchus,  the  full 
period  for  which  is  twenty-five  thousand  years.  It  gives 
a  catalogue  of  1,022  stars;  treats  of  the  nature  cf  the 
Milky  Way  ;  and  discusses,  in  the  most  masterly  manner, 
the  motions  of  the  planets.  This  point  constitutes 
Ptolemy's  second  claim  to  scientific  fame.  His  determina- 
tion of  the  planetary  orbits  was  accomplished  by  comparing 
his  own  observations  with  those  of  former  astronomers, 
especially  with  those  of  Timochares  on  Venus. 


»04r  THE   GREEK  AGE  OF  REASON.  [CH.  VI, 

To  Ptolemy  we  are  also  indebted  for  a  work  on  Geography 
used  in  European  schools  as  late  as  the  fifteenth  century. 
The  known  world  to  him  was  from  the  Canary  Islands 
Hisgecgra-  eastward  to  China,  and  from  the  equator  north- 
pfay-  ward  to  Caledonia.  His  maps,  however,  are  very 

erroneous ;  for,  in  the  attempt  to  make  them  correspond 
to  the  spherical  figure  of  the  earth,  the  longitudes  are 
too  much  to  the  east ;  the  Mediterranean  Sea  is  twenty 
degrees  too  long.  Ptolemy's  determinations  are,  therefore, 
inferior  in  accuracy  to  those  of  his  illustrious  predecessor 
Eratosthenes,  who  made  the  distance  from  the  sacred 
promontory  in  Spain  to  the  eastern  mouth  of  the  Ganges 
to  be  seventy  thousand  stadia.  Ptolemy  also  wrote  on 
Optics,  the  Planisphere,  and  Astrology.  It  is  not  often 
given  to  an  author  to  endure  for  so  many  ages ;  perhaps, 
indeed,  few  deserve  it.  The  mechanism  of  the  heavens, 
from  his  point  of  view,  has  however,  been  greatly  mis- 
understood. Neither  he  nor  Hipparchus  ever  intended 
that  theory  as  anything  more  than  a  geometrical  fiction. 
It  is  not  to  be  regarded  as  a  representation  of  the  actual 
celestial  motions.  And,  as  might  be  expected,  for  such  is 
the  destiny  of  all  unreal  abstractions,  the  theory  kept 
advancing  in  complexity  as  facts  accumulated,  and  was  on 
the  point  of  becoming  altogether  unmanageable,  when  it 
was  supplanted  by  the  theory  of  universal  gravitation, 
which  has  ever  exhibited  the  inalienable  attribute  of  a 
true  theory — affording  an  explanation  of  every  new  fact 
as  soon  as  it  was  discovered,  without  requiring  to  bo 
burdened  with  new  provisions,  and  prophetically  foretelling 
phenemona  which  had  not  as  yet  been  observed. 

From  the  time  of  the  Ptolemies  the  scientific  spirit  of 
the  Alexandrian  school  declined  ;  for  though  such  mathe- 
maticians as  Theodosius,  whose  work  on  Spherical 
Geometry  was  greatly  valued  by  the  Arab  geometers ;  and 
The  later  Pappus,  whose  mathematical  collections,  in  eight 
Alexandrian  books,  still  for  the  most  part  remain  ;  and  Theon, 
doubly  celebrated  for  his  geometrical  attain- 
ments, and  as  being  the  father  of  the  unfortunate  Hypatia, 
A.D.  415,  lived  in  the  next  three  centuries,  they  were  not 
men  like  their  great  predecessors.  That  mental  strength 
which  gives  birth  to  original  discovery  had  passed  away. 


CH.  VI.]         THE  GREEK  AGE  OF  REASON.  205 

The  commsntator  had  succeeded  to  the  philosopher.  No 
new  development  illustrated  the  physical  sciences;  they 
were  destined  long  to  remain  stationary.  Mechanics  could 
boast  of  no  trophy  like  the  proposition  of  Archimedes  on 
the  equilibrium  of  the  lever ;  no  new  and  exact  ideas  like 
those  of  the  same  great  man  on  statical  and  hydrostatical 
pressure ;  no  novel  and  clear  views  like  those  developed  in 
his  treatise  on  floating  bodies;  no  mechanical  invention 
like  the  first  of  all  steam-engines — that  of  Hero.  Natural 
Philosophy  had  come  to  a  stop.  Its  great,  and  hitherto 
successfully  cultivated  department,  Astronomy,  exhibited 
no  farther  advance.  Men  were  content  with  j)<,ciine  Of  tha 
what  had  been  done,  and  continued  to  amuse  Greek  age  of 
themselves  with  reconciling  the  celestial  pheno-  R 
mena  to  a-  combination  of  equable  circular  motions.  To 
what  are  we  to  attribute  this  pause?  Something  had 
occurred  to  enervate  the  spirit  of  science.  A  gloom  had 
settled  on  the  Museum. 

There  is  no  difficulty  in  giving  an  explanation  of  this 
unfortunate  condition.  Greek  intellectual  life  had  passed 
the  period  of  its  maturity,  and  was  entering  on  old  age. 
Moreover,  the  talent  which  might  have  been  devoted  to  tho 
service  of  science  was  in  part  allured  to  another  pursuit, 
and  in  part  repressed.  Alexandria  had  sapped  Athens,  and 
in  her  turn  Alexandria  was  sapped  by  liome.  causes  of  that 
From  metropolitan  pre-eminence  she  had  sunk  to  Celine. 
be  a  mere  provincial  town.  The  great  prizes  of  life  were 
not  so  likely  to  be  met  with  in  such  a  declining  city  as  in 
Italy  or,  subsequently,  in  Constantinople.  Whatever 
affected  these  chief  centres  of  Roman  activity,  necessarily 
influenced  her ;  but,  such  is  the  fate  of  the  conquered,  she 
must  await  their  decisions.  In  the  very  institutions  by 
which  she  had  once  been  glorified,  success  could  only  bo 
attained  by  a  conformity  to  the  manner  of  thinking 
fashionable  in  the  imperial  metropolis,  and  the  best  that 
could  be  done  was  to  seek  distinction  in  the  path  so  marked 
out.  Yet  even  with  all  this  restraint  Alexandria  asserted 
her  intellectual  power,  leaving  an  indelible  impress  on  tho 
new  theology  of  her  conquerors.  During  three  centuries 
the  intellectual  atmosphere  of  the  Eoman  empire  had  been 
changing.  Men  were  unable  to  resist  the  steadily  increasing 


206  THE  GREEK  AGE  OP  REASON.  [ctf.  VI. 

pressure.  Tranquillity  could  only  be  secured  by  passiveness. 
Things  had  come  to  such  a  state  that  the  thinking  of  men 
was  to  be  done  fcr  them  by  others,  or,  if  they  thought  at 
all,  it  must  be  in  accordance  with  a  prescribed  formula  or 
rule.  Greek  intellect  was  passing  into  decrepitude,  and  the 
moral  condition  of  the  European  world  was  IL  antagonism 
to  scientific  progress. 


CHAPTER  VII. 
THE  GREEK  AGE  OF  INTELLECTUAL  DECREPITUDE. 

THE  DEATH  OF  GREEK  PHILOSOPHY. 

Decline  of  Greek  Philosophy :  it  becomes  Retrospective,  and  in  PMU 

the  Jew  and  Apollonius  of  Tyana  leans  on  Inspiration,  My^ticism^ 

Miracles. 
NEO-PLATONISM  founded  by  Ammonius  Saccas,  followed  by  Plotinus, 

Porpnyrij,  lamblicus,  Proclus. — The  Alexandrian  Trinity. — Ecstasy. 

— AlL'ance  with  Magic,  Necromancy. 
The  Emperor  Justinian  closes  the  philosophical  Schools. 
Summary  of  Greek  Philosophy. — Its  four  Problems:  1.  Origin  of  the 

World  ;  2.  Nature  of  tlie  Soul ;  3.  Existence  of  God ;  4.  Criterion  of 

Truth. — Solution  of  these  Problems  in  the  Age  of  Inquiry — in  that  of 

Faith — in  that  of  Season — in  that  of  Decrepitude. 
Determination  of  the  Law  of   Variation  of    Greek    Opinion.  —  The 

Development  of  National  Intellect  is  the  same  as-  that  of  Individual. 
Determination  of  the  final  Conclusions  of  Greek  Philosophy  as  to  God, 

tlie    World,  the   Soul,   the   Criterion    of  Truth. — Illustrations  and 

Criticisms  on  each  <>f  these  Points. 

IN  this  chapter  it  is  a  melancholy  picture  that  I  have  to 
present — the  old  age  and  death  of  Greek  philo-  j^^^  Of 
sophy.     The  strong  man  of  Aristotelism  and  Greet  phiio- 
Stoicism   is    sinking    into    the    superannuated  sophy* 
dotard  ;  he  is  settling 

"  Into  the  lean  and  slipper'd  pantaloon, 
AVith  spectacles  on  nose  and  pouch  on  side ; 
His  youthful  hose,  well  saved,  a  world  too  wide 
For  his  shrunk  shank  ;  and  his  big  manly  voice, 
Turning  again  toward  childish  treble,  pipes 
And  whistles  in  his  sound.    Last  scene  of  all. 
That  ends  this  strange,  eventful  history, 
Is  second  childishness  and  mere  oblivion — 
Sans  teeth,  sans  eyes,  sans  taste,  sans  evervthing.** 


208  THE  GREEK    AGE  OF  [CH.  VIL 

He  is  full  of  admiration  for  the  past  and  of  contemptuous 
disgust  at  the  present ;  his  thoughts  are  wandering  to  the 
things  that  occupied  him  in  his  youth,  and  even  in  his 
infancy.  Like  those  who  are  ready  to  die,  he  delivers 
himself  up  to  religious  preparation,  without  any  farther 
concern  whether  the  things  on  which  he  is  depending  are 
intrinsically  true  or  false. 

In  this,  the  closing  scene,  no  more  do  we  find  the  vivid 
faith  of  Plato,  the  mature  intellect  of  Aristotle,  the  manly 
self-control  of  Zeno.  Greek  philosophy  is  ending  in 
garrulity  and  mysticism.  It  is  leaning  for  help  on  the 
conjurer,  juggler,  and  high-priest  of  Nature. 

There  are  also  new-comers  obtruding  themselves  on  the 
stage.  The  Eoman  soldier  is  about  to  take  the  place  of 
the  Greek  thinker,  and  assert  his  claim  to  the  effects  of  the 
intestate — to  keep  what  suits  him,  and  to  destroy  what 
he  pleases.  The  Eomans,  advancing  towards  their  age  of 
Faith,  are  about  to  force  their  ideas  on  the  European 
world. 

Under  the  shadow  of  the  Pyramids  Greek  philosophy 
was  born ;  after  many  wanderings  for  a  thousand  years 
round  the  shores  of  the  Mediterranean,  it  came  back  to  its 
native  place,  and  under  the  shadow  of  the  Pyramids  it 
died. 

From  the  period  of  the  New  Academy  the  decline  oi 
Greek  philosophy  was  uninterrupted.  Inventive  genius 
no  longer  existed ;  its  place  was  occupied  by  the  com- 
mentator. Instead  of  troubling  themselves  with  inquiries 
it  becomes  after  absolute  truth,  philosophers  sought  sup- 
retrospective.  pOrt  in  the  opinions  of  the  ancient  times, 
and  the  real  or  imputed  views  of  Pythagoras,  Plato,  or 
Aristotle  were  received  as  a  criterion.  In  this,  the  old 
age  of  philosophy,  men  began  to  act  as  though  there  had 
never  been  such  things  as  original  investigation  and 
discovery  among  the  human  race,  and  that  whatever  truth 
there  was  in  the  world  was  not  the  product  of  thought, 
but  the  remains  of  an  ancient  and  now  all  but  forgotten 
revelation  from  heaven — forgotten  through  the  guilt  and 
fall  of  man.  There  is  something  very  melancholy  in  this 
total  cessation  of  inquiry.  The  mental  impetus,  which 
one  would  have  expected  to  continue  for  a  season  by 


CH.  VII.  J  INTELLECTUAL  DECREPITUDE.  209 

reason  of  the  momentum  that  had  been  gathered  in  so 
many  ages,  seems  to  have  been  all  at  once  abruptly  lost. 
So  complete  a  pause  is  surprising  :  the  arrow  still  flies  on 
after  it  has  parted  from  the  bow ;  the  potter's  wheel  runs 
round  though  all  the  vessels  are  finished.  In  producing 
this  sudden  stoppage,  the  policy  of  the  early  Caesars 
greatly  assisted.  The  principle  of  liberty  of  thought, 
which  the  very  existence  of  the  divers  philosophical 
schools  necessarily  implied,  was  too  liable  to  make  itself 
manifest  in  aspirations  for  political  liberty.  While  through 
the  emperors  the  schools  of  Greece,  of  Alexandria,  and 
Rome  were  depressed  from  that  supremacy  to  which  they 
might  have  aspired,  and  those  of  the  provinces,  as 
Marseilles  and  Rhodes,  were  relatively  exalted,  the 
former,  in  a  silent  and  private  way,  were  commencing 
those  rivalries,  the  forerunners  of  the  great  theological 
struggles  between  them  in  after  ages  for  political  power. 
Christianity  in  its  dawn  was  attended  by  a  Masarrive(1 
general  belief  that  in  the  East  there  had  been  «t  oriental 
preserved  a  purer  recollection  of  the  ancient  re-  ld  **" 
velation,  and  that  hence  from  that  quarter  the  light  would 
presently  shine  forth.  Under  the  favouring  influence  of 
such  an  expectation,  Orientalism,  to  which,  as  we  have 
seen,  Grecian  thought  had  spontaneously  arrived,  was 
greatly  re-enforced. 

In  this  final  period  of  Greek  philosophy,  the  first  to 
whom  we  must  turn  is  Philo  the  Jew,  who  lived  in  the 
time  of  the  Emperor  Caligula.  In  harmony  with  the  ideas 
of  his  nation,  he  derives  all  philosophy  and  use-  Philo  the  Jew 
ful  knowledge  from  the  Mosaic  record,  not  thinks  he  is 
hesitating  to  wrest  Scripture  to  his  use  by  in"plrtd- 
various  allegorical  interpretations,  asserting  that  man  has 
fallen  from  his  primitive  wisdom  and  purity;  that 
physical  inquiry  is  of  very  little  avail,  but  that  an 
innocent  life  and  a  burning  faith  are  what  we  must  trust 
to.  He  persuaded  himself  that  a  certain  inspiration  fell 
upon  him  while  he  was  in  the  act  of  writing,  somewhat 
like  that  of  the  penmen  of  the  Holy  Scriptures.  His 
readers  may,  however,  be  disposed  to  believe  that  herein 
he  was  self-deceived,  judging  both  from  the  character  of 
his  composition  and  the  nature  of  bos  doctrine.  AP 


210  THE  GREEK   AGE  OP  [dl.  VII. 

respects  the  former,  he  writes  feebly,  is  vacillating  in  his 
views,  and,  when  watched  in  his  treatment  of  a  difficult 
HU  mystical  point,  is  seen  to  be  wavering  and  unsteady.  As 
philosophy,  respects  the  latter,  among  other  extraordinary 
things  he  teaches  that  the  world  is  the  chief  angel  or  first 
son  of  God ;  he  combines  all  the  powers  of  God  into  one 
force,  the  Logos  or  holy  Word,  the  highest  powers  being 
creative  wisdom  and  governing  mercy.  From  this  are 
emitted  all  the  mundane  forces  ;  and,  since  God  cannot  do 
evil,  the  existence  of  evil  in  the  world  must  be  imputed 
to  these  emanating  forces.  It  is  very  clear,  therefore, 
that  though  Philo  declined  Oriental  pantheism,  he  laid 
his  foundation  on  the  Oriental  theory  of  Emanation. 

As  aiding  very  greatly  in  the  popular  introduction  of 
Orientalism,  Apollonius  of  Tyana  must  be  mentioned. 
Under  the  auspices  of  the  Empress  Julia  Domna,  in  a 
biographical  composition,  Philostratus  had  the  audacity  to 
Apoiionius  of  institute  a  parallel  between  this  man  and  our 
Tyana.  Saviour.  He  was  a  miracle-worker,  given  to 

soothsaying  and  prophesying,  led  the  life  of  an  ascetic, 
his  raiment  and  food  being  of  the  poorest.  He  attempted 
i«  a  miracle-  a  reformation  of  religious  rites  and  morals; 
worker  and  denied  the  efficacy  of  sacrifice,  substituting  for 
it  a  simple  worship  and  a  pure  prayer,  scarce 
even  needing  words.  He  condemned  the  poets  for  pro- 
pagating immoral  fables  of  the  gods,  since  they  had 
thereby  brought  impurity  into  religion.  He  maintained 
the  doctrine  of  transmigration. 

Plutarch,  whose  time  reaches  to  the  Emperor  Hadrian, 
has  exercised  an  influence,  through  certain  peculiarities  of 
his  style,  which  has  extended  even  to  us.  Asa  philosopher 
Piutarchieans  ^e  *8  *°  ^e  c^ass°d  among  the  Platonists,  yet 
to  patronizing  with  a  predominance  of  the  prevailing  Orien- 
ientaium.  talism.  His  mental  peculiarities  seem  to  have 
unfitted  him  for  an  acceptance  of  the  national  faith,  and 
his  works  commend  themselves  rather  by  the  pleasant 
manner  in  which  he  deals  with  the  topic  on  which  he 
treats  than  by  a  deep  philosophy.  In  some  respects  an 
analogy  may  be  discerned  between  his  views  and  those  of 
Philo,  the  Isis  of  the  one  corresponding  to  the  Word  of 
the  other.  This  disposition  to  Orientalism  occurs  etill 


CH.  VII.  J  INTELLECTUAL  DECREPIT  DDE.  211 

more  strongly  in  succeeding  writers ;  for  example,  Lucius 
Apuleius  the  Numidian,  and  Numenius :    the 
latter    embracing   the    opinion   that   had   now 
become  almost  universal — that  all  Greek  philo- 

•L  ••111-  T-J-?  ilTTI  T  . 

sophy  was  originally  brought  from  the  East.  In 
his  doctrine  a  trinity  is  assumed,  the  first  person  of  which 
is  reason  ;  the  second  the  principle  of  becoming,  which  is 
a  dual  existence,  and  so  gives  rise  to  a  third  person,  these 
three  persons  constituting,  however,  only  one  God.  Having 
indicated  the  occurrence  of  this  idea,  it  is  not  necessary 
for  us  to  inquire  more  particularly  into  its  details.  As 
philosophical  conceptions,  none  of  the  trinities  of  the 
Greeks  will  bear  comparison  with  those  of  ancient  Egypt, 
Amun,  Maut,  and  Khonso,  Osiris,  Isis,  and  Horus;  nor 
with  those  of  India,  Brahma,  Vishnu,  and  Siva,  the 
Creator,  Preserver,  and  Destroyer,  or,  the  Past,  the 
Present,  and  the  Future  of  the  Buddhists. 

The  doctrines  of  Numenius  led  directly  to  those  of  Neo- 
Platonism,  of  which,  however,  the   origin  is   commonly 
imputed  to  Ammonius   Saccas  of  Alexandria, 
toward  the   close  of  the  second  century  after  sacaw°founds 
Christ.     The  views  of  this  philosopher  do  not  ^Plato- 
appear    to    have  been  committed  to  writing. 
They  are  known  to  us  through  his  disciples  Longinus  and 
Plotinus  chiefly.     Neo-Platonism,  assuming  the  aspect  of  A 
a  philosophical  religion,  is  distinguished  for  the  conflict  it  * 
maintained  with  the  rising  power  of  Christianity.     Alex- 
andria was  the  scene  of  this  contest.     The  school  which 
there  arose  lasted  for  about  300  years.     Its  history  is  not 
only  interesting  to  us  from  its  antagonism  to  that  new 
power  which  soon  was  to  conquer  the  Western  world,  "y 
but  also  because  it  was  the  expiring  effort  of  Grecian 
philosophy. 

Plotinus,  an  Egyptian,  was  born  about  A.D.  204.     He 
studied  at  Alexandria,  and  is  said  to  have  spenl 
eleven  years  under  Ammonius  Saccas.    He  ac-  My!Xc!8'  * 
companied    the    expedition    of    the    Emperor  Reunion  with 

_,V  T>        •  j     T    j-  j  •          God. 

Gordian  to  Persia    and  India,  and,   escaping 
from  its  disasters,  opened  a  philosophical  school  in  Rome. 
In  that  city  he  was  held  in  the  highest  esteem  by  the 
Emperor  Gallienus;  the  Empress  Salonina  intended  to 


212  THE  GREEK  AGE  OF  [CII.  VII. 

build  a  city,  in  which  Plotinus  might  inaugurate  the 
celebrated  Republic  of  Plato.  The  plan  was  not,  how- 
ever, carried  out.  With  the  best  intention  for  promoting 
the  happiness  of  man,  Plotinus  is  to  be  charged  with  no 
little  obscurity  and  mysticism.  Eunapius  says  truly  that 
the  heavenly  elevation  of  his  mind  and  his  perplexed  stylo 
make  him  very  tiresome  and  unpleasant.  His  repulsive- 
ness  is,  perhaps,  in  a  measure  due  to  his  want  of  skill  in 
the  art  of  composition,  for  he  did  not  learn  to  write  till 
he  was  fifty  years  old.  He  professed  a  contempt  for  the 
advantages  of  life  and  for  its  pursuits.  Ho  disparaged 
patriotism.  An  ascetic  in  his  habits,  eating  no  flesh  and 
but  little  bread,  he  held  his  body  in  utter  contempt, 
saying  that  it  was  only  a  phantom  and  a  clog  to  his  soul. 
He  refused  to  remember  his  birthday.  As  has  frequently 
been  the  case  with  those  who  have  submitted  to  prolonged 
fasting  and  meditation,  he  believed  that  ho  had  been 
privileged  to  see  God  with  his  bodily  eye,  and  on  six 
different  occasions  had  been  reunited  to  him.  In  such 
a  mental  condition,  it  may  well  be  supposed  that  his 
writings  are  mysterious,  inconsequent  and  diffuse.  An 
air  of  Platonism  mingled  with  many  Oriental  ideas  and 
ancient  Egyptian  recollections,  pervades  his  works. 

Like  many  of  his  predecessors,  Plotinus  recognized  a 
difference  between  the  mental  necessities  of  the  educated 
and  the  vulgar,  justifying  mythology  on  the  ground  that 
it  was  very  useful  to  those  who  were  not  yet  emancipated 
from  the  sensible.  Aristotle,  in  his  Metaphysics,  referring 
to  mythology  and  the  gods  in  human  form,  had  remarked, 
"  Much  has  been  mythically  added  for  the  persuasion  of 
the  multitude,  and  also  on  account  of  the  laws  and  for 
other  useful  ends."  But  Plotinus  also  held  that  the  gods 
are  not  to  be  moved  by  prayer,  and  that  both  they  and 
the  daemons  occasionally  manifest  themselves  visibly ; 
that  incantations  may  be  lawfully  practised,  and  are  not 
repugnant  to  philosophy.  In  the  body  ho  discerns  a 
penitential  mechanism  for  the  soul.  He  believes  that  the 
external  world  is  a  mere  phantom — a  dream — and  tho 
indications  of  the  senses  altogether  deceptive.  Tho  union 
with  the  divinity  of  which  ho  speaks  ho  describes  as 
an  intoxication  of  tho  soul  which,  forgetting  all  external 


CH.  VII.]  INTELLECTUAL  DECREPITUDE.  213 

things,  becomes  lost  in  the  contemplation  of  "  the  One." 
The  doctrinal  philosophy  of  Plotinus  presents  a  trinity  in 
accordance  with  the  Platonic  idea.  (1.)  The  One,  or 
Prime  essence.  (2.)  The  Reason.  (3.)  The  Soul.  Of  the 
first  he  declares  that  it  is  impossibe  to  speak  x»e  trinity  of 
fully,  and  in  what  he  says  on  this  point  there  1>lotinu8- 
are  many  apparent  contradictions,  as  when  he  denies 
oneness  to  the  one.  His  ideas  of  the  trinity  are  essentially 
based  on  the  theory  of  emanation.  He  describes  how  the 
second  principle  issues  by  emanation  out  of  the  first,  and 
the  third  out  of  the  second.  The  mechanism  of  this 
process  may  be  illustrated  by  recalling  how  from  the  body 
of  the  sun  issues  forth  light,  and  from  light  emerges  heat. 
In  the  procession  of  the  third  from  the  second  principle  it 
is  really  Thought  arising  from  Keason ;  but  Thought  is 
the  Soul.  The  mundane  soul  he  considers  as  united  to 
nothing ;  but  on  these  details  he  falls  into  much  mys- 
ticism, and  it  is  often  difficult  to  see  clearly  his  precise 
meaning,  as  when  he  says  that  Reason  is  surrounded  by 
Eternity,  but  the  Soul  is  surrounded  by  Time.  He  carries 
Idealism  to  its  last  extreme,  and,  as  has  been  said,  looks 
upon  the  visible  world  as  a  semblance  only,  deducing 
from  his  doctrine  moral  reflections  to  be  a  comfort  in  the 
trials  of  life.  Thus  he  says  that  "  sensuous  life  is  a  mere 
stage-play ;  all  the  misery  in  it  is  only  imaginary,  all 
grief  a  mere  cheat  of  the  players."  "  The  soul  is  not  in 
the  game;  it  looks  on,  while  nothing  more  than  the 
external  phantom  weeps  and  laments."  "  Passive  affec- 
tions and  misery  light  only  on  the  outward  shadow  of 
man."  The  great  end  of  existence  is  to  draw  the  soul 
from  external  things  and  fasten  it  in  contemplation  on 
God.  Such  considerations  teach  us  a  con  tempt  for  virtue  as 
well  as  for  vice :  "  Once  united  with  God,  man  leaves 
the  virtues,  as  on  entering  the  sanctuary  he  leaves  the 
images  of  the  gods  in  the  ante-temple  behind."  Hence  we 
should  struggle  to  free  ourselves  from  everything  low  and 
mean:  to  cultivate  truth,  and  devote  life  to  Ecstasy;  com- 
intimate  communion  with  God,  divesting  our-  munionwith 
selves  of  all  personality,  and  passing  into  the  u 
condition  of  ecstasy,  in  which  the  soul  is  loosened  from  its 
material  prison,  separated  from  individual  consciousness, 


214  THE  GREEK  AGE  OF  [CH.  Vn. 

and  absorbed  in  the  infinite  intelligence  from  which  it 
emanated.  "  In  ecstasy  it  contemplates  real  existence ;  it 
identifies  itself  with  that  which  it  contemplates."  Our 
reminiscence  passes  into  intuition.  Jn  all  these  views  of 
Plotinus  the  tincture  of  Orientalism  predominates ;  the 
principles  and  practices  are  altogether  Indian.  The 
Supreme  Being  of  the  system  is  the  "  unus  qui  estomnia  ;" 
the  intention  of  the  theory  of  emanation  is  to  find  a  philo- 
sophical connexion  between  him  and  the  soul  of  man  ;  the 
process  for  passing  into  ecstacy  by  sitting  long  in  an 
invariable  posture,  by  looking  stedfastly  at  the  tip  of  the 
nose,  or  by  observing  for  a  long  time  an  unusual  or  definite 
manner  of  breathing,  had  been  familiar  to  the  Eastern 
devotees,  as  they  are  now  to  the  impostors  of  our  own  times  ; 
the  result  is  not  celestial,  but  physiological.  The  pious 
Hindus  were,  however,  assured  that,  as  water  will  not  wet 
the  lotus,  so,  though  sin  may  touch,  it  can  never  defile  the 
soul  after  a  full  intuition  of  God. 

The  opinions  of  Plotinus  were  strengthened  and  diffused 
by  his  celebrated  pupil  Porphyry,  who  was  born  at  Tyre 
A.D.  233.  After  the  death  of  Plotinus  he  established  a 
school  in  Eome,  attaining  great  celebrity  in  astronomy, 
music,  geography,  and  other  sciences.  His  treatise  against 
Christianity  was  answered  by  Eusebius,  St.  Jerome,  and 
others;  the  Emperor  Theodosius  the  Great,  however, 
Porphyry-  silenced  it  more  effectually  by  causing  all  the 
his  writings  copies  to  be  burned.  Porphyry  asserts  his  own 

troyd;  unworthincss  when  compared  with  his  master, 
saying  that  he  had  been  united  to  God  but  once  in  eighty- 
six  years,  whereas  Plotinus  had  been  so  united  six  times  in 
sixty  years.  In  him  is  to  be  seen  all  the  mysticism,  and,  it 
may  be  added,  all  the  piety  of  Plotinus.  He  speaks  of 
daemons  shapeless,  and  therefore  invisible;  requiring  food, 
and  not  immortal ;  some  of  which  rule  the  air,  and  may  be 
propitated  or  restrained  by  magic  :  he  admits  also  the  use 
rcsurta  t,(  of  necromancy.  It  is  scarcely  possible  to  deter 
magic  and  mine  how  much  this  inclination  of  the  Neo- 
ncy*  Platonists  to  the  unlawful  art  is  to  be  regarded 
as  a  concession  to  the  popular  sentiment  of  the  times,  for 
elsewhere  Porphyry  does  not  hesitate  to  condemn  sooth- 
saying and  divination,  and  to  dwell  upon  the  folly  of 


CH.  VII.]  INTELLECTUAL   DECREPITUDE.  215 

invoking  the  gods  in  making  bargains,  marriages,  and  such- 
like trifles.  He  strenously  enjoins  a  holy  life  in  view  of 
the  fact  that  man  has  fallen  both  from  his  ancient  purity 
and  knowledge.  He  recommends  a  worship  in  silence  and 
pure  thought,  the  public  worship  being  of  very  secondary 
importance.  He  also  insists  on  an  abstinence  from  animal 
food. 

The  cultivation  of  magic  and  the  necromantic  art  was 
fully  carried  ou£  in  lamblicus,  a  Ccelo-Syrian,  who  died  in 
the  reign  of    Constantino    the    Great.      It  is  Iambl;cns 
scarcely  necessary  to  relate  the  miracles  and  a  wonder- 
prodigies  he  performed,  though  they  received  w 
full  credence  in  those  superstitious   times ;   how,  by  the 
intensity  of  his  prayers,  he   raised  himself  unsupported 
nine  feet  above  the  ground ;  how  he  could  make  rays  of  a 
blinding  effulgence  play  round  his  head ;    how,  before  the 
bodily  eyes  of  his  pupils,  he  evoked  two  visible  dasmonish 
imps.     Nor  is  it  necessary  to  mention  the  opinions  ot 
^Edesius,  Chrysanthus,  or  Maximus. 

For  a  moment,  however,  we  may  turn  to  Proclus,  who 
was  born  in  Constantinople  A.D.  412.  When  Vitaliau 
laid  siege  to  Constantinople,  Proclus  is  said  to  have  burned 
his  ships  with  a  polished  brass  mirror.  It  is  scarcely 
possible  for  us  to  determine  how  much  truth 
there  is  in  this,  since  similar  authority  affirms  f^atio""68 
that  ho  could  produce  rain  and  earthquakes.  with  mystio- 
JHis  theurgic  propensities  are  therefore  quite 
distinct.  Yet,  notwithstanding  these  superhuman  powers, 
together  with  special  favours  displayed  to  him  by  Apollo, 
Athene,  and  other  divinities,  he  found  it  expedient  to  culti- 
vate his  rites  in  secret,  in  terror  of  persecution  by  the 
Christians,  whose  attention  he  had  drawn  upon  himself  by 
writing  a  work  in  opposition  to  them.  Eventually  they 
succeeded  in  expelling  him  from  Athens,  thereby  teaching 
him  a  new  intrepretation  of  the  moral  maxim  he  had 
adopted,  "  Live  concealed."  It  was  the  aim  of  Proclus  to 
construct  a  complete  theology,  which  should  include  the 
theory  of  emanation,  and  be  duly  embellished  with  mysti- 
cism. The  Orphic  poems  and  Chaldaean  oracles  were  the 
basis  upon  which  he  commenced ;  his  character  may  be 
understood  from  the  dignity  he  assumed  as  "  high  priest  of 


216  THE  GREEK   AGE   OF  [CH.  VII. 

the  universe"  He  recommended  to  his  disciples  the  study 
of  Aristotle  for  the  sake  of  cultivating  the  reason,  but 
enjoined  that  of  Plato,  whose  works  he  found  to  be  full  of 
sublime  allegories  suited  to  his  purpose.  He  asserted  that 
to  know  one's  own  mind  is  to  know  the  whole  universe,  and 
that  that  knowledge  is  imparted  to  us  by  revelations  and 
illuminations  of  the  gods. 

He  speculates  on  the  manner  in  which  absorption  is  to 
take  place ;  whether  the  last  form  can  pass  at  once  into 
the  primitive,  or  whether  it  is  needful  for  it  to  resume,  in 
a  returning  succession,  the  intervening  states  of  its  career. 
From  such  elevated  ideas,  considering  the  mystical  manner 
in  which  they  were  treated,  there  was  no  other  prospect 
for  philosophy  than  to  end  as  Neo-Platonism  did  under 
Justinian  uts  Damasius.  The  final  days  were  approaching. 
»n  end  to  The  Emperor  Justinian  prohibited  the  teaching 
philosophy  of  philosophy,  and  closed  its  schools  in  Athens 
A.D.  529.  Its  last  representatives,  Damasius,  Simplicius,  and 
Isidorus,  went  as  exiles  to  Persia,  expecting  to  find  a  retreat 
under  the  protection  of  the  great  king,  who  boasted  that  he 
was  a  philosopher  and  a  Platonist.  Disappointed,  they  were 
fain  to  return  to  their  native  land  ;  and  it  must  be  re- 
corded to  the  honour  of  Chosroes  that,  in  his  treaty  of  peace 
with  the  Romans,  he  stipulated  safety  and  toleration  for 
these  exiles,  vainly  hoping  that  they  might  cultivate  their 
philosophy  and  practise  their  rites  without  molestation. 

So  ends  Greek  philosophy.  Sheis  abandoned, and  prepara- 
tion made  for  crowning  Faith  in  her  stead.  The  inquiries 
of  the  lonians,  the  reasoning  of  the  Eleatics,  the  labours 
of  Plato,  of  Aristotle,  have  sunk  into  mysticism  and  the 
art  of  the  conjurer.  As  with  the  individual  man,  so  with 
philosophy  in  its  old  age :  when  all  else  had  failed  it  threw 
itself  upon  devotion,  seeking  consolation  in  the  exercises 
of  piety — a  frame  of  mind  in  which  it  was  ready  to  die. 
The  whole  period  from  the  New  Academy  shows  that  the 
grand  attempt,  every  year  becoming  more  and  more  urgent, 
was  to  find  a  system  which  should  be  in  harmony  with 
that  feeling  of  religious  devotion  into  which  the  Roman 
empire  had  fallen — a  feeling  continually  gathering  force. 
An  air  of  piety,  though  of  a  most  delusive  kind,  had 
settled  upon  the  whole  pagan  world. 


CH.  VII.]  INTELLECTUAL   DECREPITUDE.  217 

From  the  long  history  of  Greek  philosophy  presented  in 
the  foregoing  pages,  we  turn,  1st,  to  an  investi-  Sumn)aryof 
gation  of  the  manner  of  progress  of  the  Greek  Greek 
mind ;  and,  2nd,  to   the    results    to    which   it  sophy- 
attained. 

The  period  occupied  by  the  events  we  have  been 
considering  extends  over  almost  twelve  centuries.  Itj 
commences  with  Thales,  B.C.  636,  and  ends  A.D.  529. 

1st.  Greek  philosophy  commenced  on  the  foundation  of 
physical  suggestions.  Its  first  object  was  the  AKeofin. 
determination  of  the  origin  and  manner  of  pro-  quiry— its 
duction  of  the  world.  The  basis  upon  which  it  st 
rested  was  in  its  nature  unsubstantial,  for  it  included  in- 
trinsic errors  due  to  imperfect  and  erroneous  observations. 
It  diminished  the  world  and  magnified  man,  accepting  the 
apparent  aspect  of  Nature  as  real,  and  regarding  the  earth 
as  a  flat  surface,  on  which  the  sky  was  sustained  like  a 
dome.  It  limited  the  boundaries  of  the  terrestrial  plane  to 
an  insignificant  extent,  and  asserted  that  it  was  the  special 
and  exclusive  property  of  man.  The  stars  and  First  problem. 
other  heavenly  bodies  it  looked  upon  as  mere  Origin  or  the 
meteors  or  manifestations  of  fire.  With  super-  * 
ficial  simplicity,  it  received  the  notions  of  absolute  direc- 
tions in  space,  up  and  down,  above  and  below.  In  a  like 
spirit  is  adopted,  from  the  most  general  observation,  the 
doctrine  of  four  elements,  those  forms  of  substance  naturally 
presented  to  us  in  a  predominating  quantity — earth,  water, 
air,  fire.  From  these  slender  beginnings  it  made  its  first 
attempt  at  a  cosmogony,  or  theory  of  the  mode  of  creation, 
by  giving  to  one  of  these  elements  a  predominance  or  supe- 
riority over  the  other  three,  and  making  them  issue  from 
it.  With  one  teacher  the  primordial  element  was  water ; 
with  another,  air ;  with  another,  fire.  Whether  a  genesis 
had  thus  taken  place,  or  whether  all  four  elements  were  co- 
ordinate and  equal,  the  production  of  the  world  was  of  easy 
explanation ;  for,  by  calling  in  the  aid  of  ordinary  observa- 
tion, which  assures  us  that  mud  will  sink  to  the  bottom  of 
water,  that  water  will  fall  through  air,  that  it  is  the 
apparent  nature  of  fire  to  ascend,  and,  combining  these 
illusory  facts  with  the  erroneous  notion  of  up  and  down  in 
space,  the  arrangement  of  the  visible  world  became  clear — 
VOL.  I.— 11 


218  THE  GREEK  AGE  OF  [dl.  VII. 

the  earth  down  below,  the  water  floating  upon  it,  the  air 
above,  and,  still  higher,  the  region  of  fire.  Thus  it  appears 
that  the  first  inquiry  made  by  European  philosophy  was, 
Whence  and  in  what  manner  came  the  world  ? 

The  principles  involved  in  the  solution  of  this  problem 
evidently  led  to  a  very  important  inference,  at  this  early 
period  betraying  what  was  before  long  to  become  a  serious 
point  of  dispute.  It  is  natural  for  man  to  see  in  things 
around  him  visible  tokens  of  divinity,  continual  provi- 
dential dispensations.  But  in  this,  its  very  first  act, 
Greek  philosophy  had  evidently  excluded  God  from  his 
own  world.  This  settling  of  the  heavy,  this  ascending  of 
ita  irreligious  the  HgH  was  altogether  a  purely  physical 
solution  affair ;  the  limitless  sea,  the  blue  air,  and  the  un- 
numbered shining  stars,  were  set  in  their  appro- 
priate places,  not  at  the  pleasure  or  by  the  hand  of  God, 
but  by  innate  properties  of  their  own.  Popular  supersti- 
tion was  in  some  degree  appeased  by  the  localization  of 
deities  in  the  likeness  of  men  in  a  starry  Olympus  above 
the  sky,  a  region  furnishing  unsubstantial  glories  and  a 
tranquil  abode.  And  yet  it  is  not  possible  to  exclude 
altogether  the  spiritual  from  this  world.  The  soul,  ever 
active  and  ever  thinking,  asserts  its  kindred  with  the 
divine.  What  is  that  soul  ?  Such  was  the  second  question 
propounded  by  Greek  philosophy. 

A  like  course  of  superficial  observation  was  resorted  to 
Second  pro-  *n  *^e  solution  of  this  inquiry.  To  breathe  is  to 
biem.  What  live ;  then  the  breath  is  the  life.  If  we  cease  to 
breathe  we  die.  Man  only  becomes  a  living  soul 
when  the  breath  of  life  enters  his  nostrils ;  he  is  a  senseless 
and  impassive  form  when  the  last  breath  is  expired.  In 
this  life-giving  principle,  the  air,  must  therefore  exist  all 
those  noble  qualities  possessed  by  the  soul.  It  must  be  the 
source  from  which  all  intellect  arises,  the  store  to  which  all 
intellect  again  returns.  The  philosophical  school  whose 
fundamental  principle  was  that  the  air  is  the  primordial 
its  material  element  thus  brought  back  the  Deity  into  the 
the'rerf1  ^OT^  though  under  a  material  form.  Yet  still 
it  was  in  antagonism  to  the  national  polytheism, 
unless  from  that  one  god,  the  air,  the  many  gods  of 
Olympus  arose. 


CH.  VII.]  INTELLECTUAL  DECREPITUDE.  219 

But  who  is  that  one  God  ?     This  is  the  third  question 
put  forth   by  Greek  philosophy.      Its   answer  Third  problem, 
betrays  that  in  this,  its  beginning,  it  is  tending  what  is  God? 
to  Pantheism, 

In  all  these  investigations  the  starting-point  had  been 
material  conceptions,  depending  on  the  impressions  or 
information  of  the  senses.  Whatever  the  conclusion  arrived 
at,  its  correctness  turned  on  the  correctness  of  that  infor- 
mation. When  we  put  a  little  wine  into  a  measure  of 
water,  the  eye  may  no  longer  see  it,  but  the  wine  is  there. 
When  a  rain-drop  falls  on  the  leaves  of  a  distant  forest, 
we  cannot  hear  it,  but  the  murmur  of  many  drops  com- 
posing a  shower  is  audible  enough.  But  what  is  that 
murmur  except  the  sum  of  the  sounds  of  all  the  individual 
drops  ? 

And  so  it  is  plain  our  senses  are  prone  to  Fourth  pro- 
deceive    us.      Hence  arises    the    fourth    great  nla™;^! 
question   of  Greek  philosophy:  Have  we  any  rion  of  truth? 
criterion  of  truth  ? 

The  moment  a  suspicion  that  we  have  not  crosses  tho 
mind  of  man,  he  realizes  what  may  be  truly  termed  intel- 
lectual despair.  Is  this  world  an  illusion,  a  phantasm  of 
the  imagination?  If  things  material  and  tangible,  and 
therefore  the  most  solid  props  of  knowledge,  are  thus 
abruptly  destroyed,  in  what  direction  shall  we  turn  ? 
Within  a  single  centxiry  Greek  philosophy  had  come  to  this 
pass,  and  it  was  not  without  reason  that  intelligent  men 
looked  on  Pythagoras  almost  as  a  divinity  upon  Importance  ot 
earth  when  he  pointed  out  to  them  a  path  of  th*  views  of 
escape;  when  he  bid  them  reflect  on  what  it  was  1>ithas°ras- 
that  had  thus  taught  them  the  fallibility  of  sense.  For 
what  is  it  but  reason  that  has  been  thus  warning  us,  and, 
in  the  midst  of  delusions,  has  guided  us  to  the  truth — 
reason,  which  has  objects  of  her  own,  a  world  of  her  own? 
Though  the  visible  and  audible  may  deceive,  wo  may 
nevertheless  find  absolute  truth  in  things  altogether 
separate  from  material  nature,  particularly  in  the  relations 
of  numbers  and  properties  of  geometrical  forms.  There  is 
no  illusion  in  this,  that  two  added  to  two  make  four ;  or  in 
this,  that  any  two  sides  of  a  triangle  taken  together  aro 
greater  than  the  third.  If,  then,  we  aro  living  in  a  region 


220  THE   GREEK   AGE   OF  [CH.  VII 

of  deceptions,  we  may  rest  assured  that  it  is  surrounded  by 
a  world  of  truth. 

From   the  material   basis   speculative  philosophy   gra- 
dually disengaged  itself  through  the  labours  of 
the  KicaMc      the  Eleatic  school,  the  controversy  as  to   the 
•cbooiandthe  primary  element   receding   into   insignificance, 

Sophists.  11      •  i          j   i        •  a.-        .•  .      rn- 

and  being  replaced  by  investigations  as  to  1  ime, 
Motion,  Space,  Thought,  Being,  God.  The  general  result  of 
these  inquiries  brought  into  prominence  the  suspicion  of  the 
untrustworthiness  of  the  senses,  the  tendency  of  the  whole 
period  being  manifested  in  the  hypothesis  at  last  attained, 
that  atoms  and  space  alone  exist ;  and,  since  the  former  are 
mere  centres  of  force,  matter  is  necessarily  a  phantasm. 
When,  therefore,  the  Athenians  themselves  commenced  the 
cultivation  of  philosophy,  it  was  with  full  participation  in 
the  doubt  and  uncertainty  thus  overspreading  the  whole 
subject.  As  Sophists,  their  action  closed  this  speculative 
period,  for,  by  a  comparison  of  all  the  partial  sciences  thus 
far  known,  they  arrived  at  the  conclusion  that  there  is  no 
conscience,  no  good  or  evil,  no  philosophy,  no  religion,  no 
law,  no  criterion  of  truth. 

But  man  cannot  live  without  some  guiding  rule.  If  his 
speculations  in  Nature  will  yield  him  nothing  on  which  ho 
may  rely,  he  will  seek  some  other  aid.  If  there  be  no 
criterion  of  truth  for  him  in  philosophy,  ho  will  lean  on 
implicit,  unquestioning  faith.  Jf  ho  cannot  prove  by 
Age  of  faith-  physical  arguments  the  existence  of  God,  he  will, 
its  eolations,  with  Socrates,  accept  that  great  fact  as  self 
evident  and  needing  no  demonstration.  He  will,  in  like 
manner,  take  his  stand  upon  the  undeniable  advantages 
of  virtue  and  good  morals,  defending  the  doctrine  that 
pleasure  should  be  the  object  of  life — pleasure  of  that  pure 
kind  which  flows  from  a  cultivation  of  ennobling  pursuits, 
or  instinctive,  as  exhibited  in  the  life  of  brutes.  But  when 
he  has  thus  cast  aside  demonstration  as  needless  for  his 
purposes,  and  put  his  reliance  in  this  manner  on  faith,  ho 
has  lost  the  restraining,  the  guiding  principle  that  can  set 
bounds  to  his  conduct.  If  he  considers,  with  Socrates,  who 
opens  the  third  age  of  Greek  development — its  age  of  faith 
— the  existence  of  God  as  not  needing  any  proof,  he  may, 
in  like  manner,  add  thereto  the  existence  of  matter  and 


CH.   VII.]  INTELLECTUAL  DECREPITUDE.  221 

ideas.  To  faith  there  will  be  no  difficulty  in  such  doctrines 
as  those  of  Reminiscence,  the  double  immortality 
of  the  soul,  the  actual  existence  of  universals ;  tfon^'piato, 
and,  if  such  faith,  unrestrained  and  unrestricted,  and  Vs  el!dby 
be  directed  to  the  regulation  of  personal  life, 
there  is  nothing  to  prevent  a  falling  into  excess  and  base 
egoism.  For  ethics,  in  such  an  application,  ends  either  in 
the  attempt  at  the  procurement  of  extreme  personal  sanctity 
or  the  obtaining  of  individual  pleasure — the  foundation 
of  patriotism  is  sapped,  the  sentiment  of  friendship  is 
destroyed.  So  it  was  with  the  period  of  Grecian  faith 
inaugurated  by  Socrates,  developed  by  Plato,  and  closed 
by  the  Sceptics.  Antisthenes  and  Diogenes  of  Sinope,  in 
their  outrages  on  society  and  their  self-mortifications, 
show  to  what  end  a  period  of  faith,  unrestrained  by  reason, 
will  come ;  and  Epicurus  demonstrated  its  tendency  when 
guided  by  self. 

Thus  closes  the  third  period  of  Greek  philosophical 
development. 

In  introducing  us  to  a  fourth,  Aristotle  insists  that, 
though  we  must  rely  on  reason,  Reason  itself  must  submit 
to  be  guided  by  Experience;  and  Zeno,  taking  A*e  of  Reason 
up  the  same  thought,  teaches  us  that  we  must  -its solutions. 
appeal  to  the  decisions  of  common  sense.  He  disposes  of 
all  doubt  respecting  the  criterion  of  truth  by  proclaiming 
that  the  distinctness  of  our  sensuous  impressions  is  a  suf- 
ficient guide.  In  all  this,  the  essential  condition  involved 
is  altogether  different  from  that  of  the  speculative  ages, 
and  also  of  the  age  of  faith.  Yet,  though  under  tho 
ostensible  guidance  of  reason,  the  human  mind  ever  seeks 
to  burst  through  such  self-imposed  restraints,  attempting 
to  ascertain  things  for  which  it  possesses  no  suitable  data. 
Even  in  the  age  of  Aristotle,  the  age  of  Reason  in  Greece, 
philosophy  resumed  such  questions  as  those  of  the  creation 
of  the  world,  the  emanation  of  matter  from  God,  tho 
existence  and  nature  of  evil,  the  immortality,  or,  alas !  it 
might  perhaps  be  more  truly  said,  judging  from  its  con- 
clusions, the  death  of  the  soul,  and  this  even  after  the  Scep- 
tics had,  with  increased  force,  denied  that  we  have  any 
criterion  of  truth,  and  showed  to  their  own  satisfaction 
that  man,  at  the  best,  can  do  nothing  but  doubt ;  and,  in. 


222  THE  GREEK   AGE  OF  [CH.  VH. 

view  of  his  condition  hero  upon  earth,  since  it  has  not  been 
permitted  him  to  know  what  is  right  and  what  is  wrong, 
what  is  true  and  what  is  false,  his  wisest  course  is  to  give 
himself  no  concern  about  the  matter,  but  tranquilly  sink 
into  a  state  of  complete  indifference  and  quietism. 

How  uniformly  do  we  see  that  through  such  variations 
of  opinion  individual  man  approaches  his  end.  For  Greek 
philosophy,  what  other  prospect  was  there  but  decrepitude, 
with  its  contempt  for  the  present,  its  attachment  to  the 
past,  its  distrust  of  man,  its  reliance  on  the  mysterious — 
the  unknown  ?  And  this  imbecility  how  plainly  we  witness 
before  the  scene  finally  is  closed. 

If  now  we  look  back  upon  this  career  of  the  Grecian  mind, 
we  find  that  after  the  legendary  pro-historic  period — tho 
age  of  credulity — there  came  in  succession  an  age  of  specu- 
lative inquiry,  an  age  of  faith,  an  age  of  reason,  an  age  of 
decrepitude — the  first,  the  age  of  credulity,  was  closed  by 
geographical  discovery ;  the  second  by  the  criticism  of  the 
Sophists ;  the  third  by  the  doubts  of  the  Sceptics ;  the 
Duration  of  fourth,  eminently  distinguished  by  the  greatness 
these  ages.  of  jts  results,  gradually  declined  into  the  fifth, 
an  ago  of  decrepitude,  to  which  the  hand  of  the  Roman 
put  an  end.  In  the  mental  progress  of  this  people  wo 
therefore  discern  the  foreshadowing  of  a  course  like  that  of 
individual  life,  its  epochs  answering  to  Infancy,  Childhood 
Youth,  Manhood,  Old  A  ge ;  and  which,  on  a  still  grander 
scale,  as  we  shall  hereafter  find,  has  been  repeated  by  all 
Europe  in  its  intellectual  development. 

In  a  space  of  1150  years,  ending  about  A.D.  529,  tho 
Boundaries  of  Greek  mind  had  completed  its  philosophical 
these  agts.  career.  The  ages  into  which  we  have  divided 
that  course  pass  by  insensible  gradations  into  each  other. 
They  overlap  and  intermingle,  like  a  gradation  of  colours, 
but  the  characteristics  of  each  are  perfectly  distinct. 

2nd.  Having  thus  determined  tho  general  law  of  tho 
variation  of  opinions,  that  it  is  the  same  in  this 

Detprmina-  ,.  .     *  1.    .  ,      .      _      lni 

tiouoftheiaw  nation  as  in  an  individual,  1  shall  next  en- 
JJSJX?*  deavour  to  disentangle  the  final  results  attained, 
considering  Greek  philosophy  as  a  whole.  To 
return  to  the  illustration,  to  us  more  than  an  empty 
metaphor,  though  in  individual  life  there  is  a  successive 


CH,  VII.]  INTELLECTUAL  DECREPITUDE.  223 

passage  through  infancy,  childhood,  youth,  and  manhood 
to  old  age,  a  passage  in  which  the  characteristics  of  each, 
period  in  their  turn  disappear,  yet,  nevertheless,  there  are 
certain  results  in  another  sense  permanent,  giving  to  the 
whole  progress  its  proper  individuality.  A  philosophical 
critical  eye  may  discern  in  the  successive  stages  <onciusions 

f     r\        i          1-1  -L."      i     j         i  j.     j      •    •         finallyarrived 

of    Greek    philosophical    development  decisive  atbytiie 
and  enduring  results.     These  it  is  for  which  we  Greeks- 
have  been  searching  in  this  long  and  tedious  discussion. 

There  are  four  grand  topics  in  Greek  philosophy :  1st, 
the  existence  and  attributes  of  God;  2nd,  the  origin  and 
destiny  of  the  world ;  3rd,  the  nature  of  the  human  soul ; 
4th,  the  possibility  of  a  criterion  of  truth.  I  shall  now 
present  what  appear  to  me  to  be  the  results  at  which  the 
Greek  mind  arrived  on  each  of  these  points. 

(1.)  Of  the  existence  and  attributes  of  God.  On  this 
point  the  decision  of  the  Greek  mind  was  the  AS  to  God- 
absolute  rejection  of  all  anthropomorphic  con-  life  unity, 
ceptions,  even  at  the  risk  of  encountering  the  pressure  of 
the  national  superstition.  Of  the  all-powerful,  all-perfect, 
and  eternal  there  can  be  but  one,  for  such  attributes  are 
absolutely  opposed  to  anything  like  a  participation, 
whether  of  a  spiritual  or  material  nature ;  and  hence  the 
conclusion  that  the  universe  itself  is  God,  and  that  all 
animate  and  inanimate  things  belong  to  his  essence.  In 
him  they  live,  and  move,  and  have  their  being.  It  is  con- 
ceivable that  God  may  exist  without  the  world,  but  it  is 
inconceivable  that  the  world  should  exist  without  God. 
We  must  not,  however,  permit  ourselves  to  be  deluded  by 
the  varied  aspect  of  things ;  for,  though  the  universe  is 
thus  God,  we  know  it  not  as  it  really  is,  but  only  as  it 
appears.  God  has  no  relations  to  space  and  time.  They 
are  only  the  fictions  of  our  finite  imagination. 

But  this  ultimate  effort  of  the  Greek  mind  is  Pantheism. 
It    is  the  same  result  which  the   more  aged  BUttheir 
branch  of  the  Indo-TCuropean  family  had  long  solution  is 
before  reached.     "  There  is  no  God  independent  Pl 
of  Nature ;  no  other  has  been  revealed  by  tradition,  per- 
ceived by  the  sense,  or  demonstrated  by  argument." 

Yet  never  will  man  be  satisfied  with  such  a  conclusion. 
It  offers  him  none  of  that  aspect  of  personality  which 


224  THE  GREEK   AGE  OF  [oil.  VTI. 

his  yearnings  demand.  This  infinite,  and  eternal,  and 
universal  is  no  intellect  at  all.  It  is  passionless,  without 
motive,  without  design.  It  does  not  answer  to  those  linea- 
ments of  which  he  catches  a  glimpse  when  he  considers  the 
attributes  of  his  own  soul.  He  shudderingly  turns  from 
Pantheism,  this  final  result  of  human  philosophy,  and, 
voluntarily  retracing  his  steps,  subordinates  his  reason  to 
his  instinctive  feelings  ;  declines  the  impersonal  as  having 
nothing  in  unison  with  him,  and  asserts  a  personal  God, 
the  Maker  of  the  universe  and  the  Father  of  men. 

(2.)  Of  the  origin  and  destiny  of  the  world.  In  an 
examination  of  the  results  at  which  the  Greek 
mind  arrived  on  this  topic,  our  labour  is  ren- 


tion  (jere(l  much  lighter  by  the  assistance  we  receive 
from  the  decision  of  the  preceding  inquiry. 
Tho  origin  of  all  things  is  in  God,  of  whom  the  world  is 
only  a  visible  manifestation.  It  is  evolved  by  and  from 
him,  perhaps,  as  the  Stoics  delighted  to  say,  as  the  plant 
is  evolved  by  and  from  the  vital  germ  in  the  seed.  It  is 
an  emanation  of  him.  On  this  point  we  may  therefore 
accept  as  correct  tho  general  impression  entertained  by 
philosophers,  Greek,  Alexandrian,  and  Roman  after  the 
Christian  era,  that,  at  the  bottom,  the  Greek  and  Oriental 
philosophies  were  alike,  not  only  as  respects  the  questions 
they  proposed  for  solution,  but  also  in  the  decisions  they 
arrived  at.  As  we  have  said,  this  impression  led  to  tho 
belief  that  there  must  have  been  in  the  remote  past  a 
revelation  common  to  both,  though  subsequently  obscured 
and  vitiated  by  the  infirmities  and  wickedness  of  man. 
This  doctrine  of  emanation,  reposing  on  the  assertion  that 
tho  world  existed  eternally  in  God,  that  it  came  forth  into 
visibility  from  him,  and  will  be  hereafter  absorbed  into  him, 
is  one  of  the  most  striking  features  of  Veda  theology.  It  is 
developed  Avith  singular  ability  by  the  Indian  philosophers 
as  well  as  by  the  Greeks,  and  is  illustrated  by  their  poets. 
The  following  extract  from  the  Institutes  of  Menu 
This  solution  wiU  convey  the  Oriental  conclusion:  "This 
identical  with  universe  existed  only  in  the  first  divine  idea, 

the  Oriental.  -,    ,  -t-    '          •>        i     •        j      i 

yet  unexpanded,  as  if  involved  in  darkness  ; 
imperceptible,  undefinable,  undiscoverable  by  reason,  and 
undiscovered  by  revelation,  as  if  it  were  wholly  immersed 


CH.  VII.]  INTELLECTUAL  DECREPITUDE.  225 

in  sleep.  Then  the  sole  self-existing  power,  himself  un- 
discerned,  but  making  this  world  discernible,  with  five 
elements  and  other  principles  of  nature,  appeared  with 
undiminished  glory,  expanding  his  idea,  or  dispelling  the 
gloom.  He  whom  the  mind  alone  can  perceive,  whose 
essence  eludes  the  external  organs,  who  has  no  visible 
parts,  who  exists  from  eternity — even  He,  the  soul  of  all 
beings,  whom  no  being  can  comprehend,  shone  forth  in 
person.  He,  having  willed  to  produce  various  beings 
from  his  own  divine  substance,  first  with  a  thought  created 
the  waters.  The  waters  are  so  called  (nara)  because  they 
were  the  production  of  Nara,  or  the  spirit  of  God ;  and, 
since  they  were  his  first  ayana,  or  place  of  motion,  he 
thence  is  named  Narayana,  or  moving  on  the  waters. 
From  that  which  is  the  first  cause,  not  the  object  of  sense 
existing  everywhere  in  substance,  not  existing  to  our 
perception,  without  beginning  or  end,  was  produced  the 
divine  male.  He  framed  the  heaven  above,  the  earth 
beneath,  and  in  the  midst  placed  the  subtle  ether,  the 
light  regions,  and  the  permanent  receptacle  of  waters. 
He  framed  all  creatures.  He  gave  being  to  time  and  the 
divisions  of  time — to  the  stars  also  and  the  planets.  For 
the  sake  of  distinguishing  actions,  he  made  a  total 
difference  between  right  and  wrong.  He  whose  powers 
are  incomprehensible,  having  created  this  universe,  was 
again  absorbed  in  the  spirit,  changing  the  time  of  energy 
for  the  time  of  repose." 

From   such   extracts  from  the  sacred  writings   of  the 
Hindus  we  might  turn  to  their  poets,  and  find  the  same 
conceptions  of  the  emanation,  manifestation,  and  lustrations 
absorption  of  the  world  illustrated.     "The  In-  of  the  origin, 
finite   being   is   like   the   clear   crystal,   which  absorpt?oi?of 
receives  into  itself  all  the   colours   and   emits  theworld- 
them  again,  yet  its  transparency  or  purity  is  not  thereby 
injured  or  impaired."     "He  is  like  the  diamond,  which 
absorbs  the  light  surrounding  it,  and  glows  in  the  dark 
from  the  emanation  thereof."     In  similes  of  a  less  noble 
nature  they  sought  to  convey  their  idea  to  the  illiterate 
"  Thou  hast  seen  the  spider  spin  his  web,  thou  hast  seen 
its  excellent  geometrical  form,  and  how  well  adapted  it  is 
to  its  use ;  thou  hast  seen   the  play  of  tinted  colours 

11* 


226  THE  GREEK  AGE  OF  [ell.  VII. 

making  it  shino  like  a  rainbow  in  the  rays  of  the  morning 
sun.  From  his  bosom  the  little  artificer  drew  forth  the 
wonderful  thread,  and  into  his  bosom,  when  it  pleases 
him,  he  can  withdraw  it  again.  So  Brahm  made,  and  so 
will  he  absorb  the  world."  In  common  the  Greek  and 
Indian  asserted  that  being  exists  for  the  sake  of  thought, 
and  hence  they  must  be  one;  that  the  universe  is  a 
thought  in  the  mind  of  God,  and  is  imaffected  by  tho 
vicissitudes  of  the  worlds  of  which  it  is  composed.  In 
India  this  doctrine  of  emanation  had  reached  such  ap- 
parent precision  that  some  asserted  it  was  possible  to 
demonstrate  that  the  entire  Brahm  was  not  transmuted 
into  mundane  phenomena,  but  only  a  fourth  part ;  that 
there  occur  successive  emanations  and  absorptions,  a 
periodicity  in  this  respect  being  observed ;  that,  in  these 
considerations,  \ve  ought  to  guard  ourselves  from  any 
deception  arising  from  the  visible  appearance  of  material 
things,  for  there  is  reason  to  believe  that  matter  is  nothing 
more  than  forces  filling  space.  Democritus  raised  us  to 
the  noble  thought  that,  small  as  it  is,  a  single  atom  may 
constitute  a  world. 

The  doctrine  of  Emanation  has  thus  a  double  inter- 
pretation. It  sets  forth  the  universe  either  as  a  part  of 
the  substance  of  God,  or  as  an  unsubstantial  something 
proceeding  from  him :  the  former  a  conception  more  tan- 
gible and  readily  grasped  by  the  mind ;  the  latter  of  un- 
approachable sublimity,  when  we  recall  the  countless 
beautiful  and  majestic  forms  which  Nature  on  all  sides 
presents.  This  visible  world  is  only  the  shadow  of  God. 

In  the  further  consideration  of  this  doctrine  of  tho 
issue  forthcoming,  or  emanation  of  the  universe  from 
God,  and  its  return  into  or  absorption  by  him,  an  illustra- 
tion may  not  be  without  value.  Out  of  the  air,  which 
may  be  pure  and  tranquil,  the  watery  vapour  often  comes 
forth  in  a  visible  form,  a  misty  fleece,  perhaps  no  larger 
than  the  hand  of  a  man  at  first,  but  a  great  cloud  in  the 
end.  The  external  appearance  the  forthcoming  form 
presents  is  determined  by  the  incidents  of  the  times ;  it 
may  have  a  pure  whiteness  or  a  threatening  blackness ; 
its  edges  may  be  fringed  with  gold.  In  the  bosom  of  such 
a  cloud  tho  lightning  may  be  pent  up,  from  it  the  thunder 


CH.  VII.]  INTELLECTUAL  DECREPITUDE.  227 

may  be  heard ;  but,  even  if  it  should  not  offer  these  mani- 
festations of  power,  if  its  disappearance  should  oe  as 
tranquil  as  its  formation,  it  has  not  existed  in  vain.  No 
cloud  ever  yet  formed  on  the  sky  without  leaving  an 
imperishable  impression  on  the  earth,  for  while  it  yet 
existed  there  was  not  a  plant  whose  growth  was  not 
delayed,  whose  substance  was  not  lessened.  And  of  such 
a  cloud  the  production  of  which  we  have  watched,  how 
often  has  it  happened  to  us  to  witness  its  melting  away 
into  the  untroubled  air.  From  the  untroubled  air  it  came, 
and  to  the  pure  untroubled  air  it  has  again  returned. 

Now  such  a  cloud  is  made  up  of  countless  hosts  of 
microscopic  drops,  each  maintaining  itself  separate  from 
the  others,  and  each,  small  though  it  may  be,  having  an 
individuality  of  its  own.  The  grand  aggregate  may  vai'y 
its  colour  and  shape ;  it  may  be  the  scene  of  unceasing  and 
rapid  interior  movements  of  many  kinds,  yet  it  presents 
its  aspect  unchanged,  or  changes  tranquilly  and  silently, 
still  glowing  in  the  light  that  falls  on  it,  still  casting  its 
shadow  on  the  ground.  It  is  an  emblem  of  the  universe 
according  to  the  ancient  doctrine,  showing  us  how  tho 
visible  may  issue  from  the  invisible,  and  return  again 
thereto ;  that  a  drop  too  small  for  the  unassisted  eye  to  see 
may  be  the  representative  of  a  world.  The  spontaneous 
emergence  and  disappearance  of  a  cloud  is  the  emblem  of 
a  transitory  universe  issuing  forth  and  disappearing,  again 
to  be  succeeded  by  other  universes,  other  like  creations 
in  the  long  lapse  of  time. 

(3.)  Of  the  nature  of  the  soul.  From  the  material 
quality  assigned  to  the  soul  by  the  early  Ionian  schools,  as 
that  it  was  air,  fire,  or  the  like,  there  was  a  Astothe8oni 
gradual  passage  to  the  opinion  of  its  imma — :apartoftUe 
teriality.  To  this,  precision  was  given  by  the  dlvmity> 
assertion  that  it  had  not  only  an  affinity  with,  but  even  is 
a  part  of  God.  Whatever  were  the  views  entertained  of 
the  nature  and  attributes  of  the  Supreme  Being,  they 
directly  influenced  the  conclusions  arrived  at  respecting 
the  nature  of  the  soul. 

Greek  philosophy,  in  its  highest  state  of  development, 
regarded  the  soul  as  something  more  than  the  sum  of  the 
moments  of  thinking.  It  held  it  to  be  a  portion  of  the 


228  THE  GREEK   AGE  OF  [~CH.  VII. 

Deity  himself.  This  doctrine  is  the  necessary  corollary  of 
Pantheism.  It  contemplated  a  past  eternity,  a  future 
immortality.  It  entered  on  such  inquiries  as  whether  the 
number  of  souls  in  the  universe  is  constant.  As  upon 
the  foregoing  point,  so  upon  this:  there  was  a  complete 
analogy  be  ween  the  decision  arrived  at  in  Grecian  and 
that  in  Indian  philosophy.  Thus  the  latter  says,  "  I  am 
myself  an  irradiated  manifestation  of  the  supreme  BRAHM.'' 
"  Never  was  there  a  time  in  which  I  was  not,  nor  thou, 
nor  these  princes  of  the  people,  and  never  shall  I  not  be ; 
henceforth  we  all  are."  Viewing  the  soul  as  merely  a 
spectator  and  stranger  in  this  world,  they  regarded  it  as 
occupying  itself  rather  in  contemplation  than  in  action, 
asserting  that  in  its  origin  it  is  an  immediate  emanation 
from  the  Divinity — not  a  modification  nor  a  transforma- 
tion of  the  Supreme,  but  a  portion  of  him ;  "  its  relation  is 
not  that  of  a  servant  to  his  master,  but  of  a  part  to  the 
whole."  It  is  like  a  spark  separated  from  a  flame ;  it 
migrates  from  body  to  body,  sometimes  found  in  the 
higher,  then  in  the  lower,  and  again  in  the  higher  tribes 
of  life,  occupying  first  one,  then  another  body,  as  circum- 
its  immortal-  s^ances  demand.  And,  ao  a  drop  of  water 
ity  and  final  pursues  a  devious  career  in  the  cloud,  in  the 
absorption.  rajn<  |n  the  river,  a  part  of  a  plant,  or  a  part  of 
an  animal,  but  sooner  or  later  inevitably  finds  its  way 
back  to  the  sea  from  which  it  came,  so  tne  soul,  however 
various  its  fortunes  may  have  been,  sinks  back  at  last  into 
the  divinity  from  which  it  emanated. 

Both  Greeks  and  Hindus  turned  their  attention  to  the 
delusive  phenomena  of  the  world.  Among  the  latter  many 
figuratively  supposed  that  what  we  call  visible  nature  is  a 
mere  illusion  befalling  .the  soul,  because  of  its  temporary 
separation  from  God.  In  the  Buddhist  philosophy  the 
world  is  thus  held  to  be  a  creature  of  the  imagination. 
But  among  some  in  those  ancient,  as  among  others  in  more 
modern  times,  it  was  looked  upon  as  having  a  more  sub- 
stantial condition,  and  the  soul  as  a  passive  mirror  in 
which  things  reflected  themselves,  or  perhaps  it  might,  to 
some  extent,  be  the  partial  creator  of  its  own  forms.  How- 
ever that  may  be,  its  final  destiny  is  a  perfect  repose  after 
its  absorption  in  the  Supreme. 


CH.  VII.]  INTELLECTUAL   DECREPITUDE.  229 

On  this  third  topic  of  ancient  philosophy  an  illustration 
may  not  be  without  use.  As  a  bubble  floats  nitration  oi 
upon  the  sea,  and,  by  reason  of  its  form,  reflects  the  nature  of 
whatever  objects  may  be  present,  whether  the  * 
clouds  in  the  sky,  or  the  stationary  and  moving  things  on 
the  shore,  nay,  even  to  a  certain  extent  depicts  the  sea 
itself  on  which  it  floats,  and  from  which  it  arose,  offering 
these  various  forms  not  only  in  shapes  resembling  the 
truth  in  the  proper  order  of  light  and  shade,  the  proper 
perspective,  the  proper  colours,  but,  in  addition  thereto, 
tincturing  them  all  with  a  play  of  hues  arising  from  itself, 
so  it  is  with  the  soul.  From  a  boundless  and  unfathom- 
able sea  the  bubble  arose.  It  does  not  in  any  respect  differ 
in  nature  from  its  source.  From  water  it  came,  and  mere 
water  it  ever  is.  It  gathers  its  qualities,  so  far  as  external 
things  are  concerned,  only  from  its  form,  and  from  the 
environment  in  which  it  is  placed.  As  the  circumstances 
to  which  it  is  exposed  vary,  it  floats  here  and  there, 
merging  into  other  bubbles  it  meets,  and  emerging  from 
the  collected  foam  again.  In  such  migrations  it  is  now 
larger,  now  smaller;  at  one  moment  passing  into  new 
shapes,  at  another  lost  in  a  coalescence  with  those  around 
it.  But  whatever  these  its  migrations,  these  its  vicissitudes, 
there  awaits  it  an  inevitable  destiny,  an  absorption,  a  re- 
incorporation  with  the  ocean.  In  that  final  moment,  what 
is  it  that  is  lost?  what  is  it  that  has  come  to  an  end? 
Not  the  essential  substance,  for  water  it  was  before  it  was 
developed,  water  it  was  during  its  existence,  and  water  it 
still  remains,  ready  to  be  re-expanded. 

Nor  does  the  resemblance  fail  when  we  consider  the 
general  functions  discharged  while  the  "bubble  maintained 
its  form.  In  it  were  depicted  in  their  true  shapes  and 
relative  magnitudes  surrounding  things.  It  hence  had  a 
relation  to  Space.  And,  if  it  was  in  motion,  it  reflected  in 
succession  the  diverse  objects  as  they  passed  by.  Through 
such  successive  representations  it  maintained  a  relation  to 
Time.  Moreover,  it  imparted  to  the  images  it  thus  pro- 
duced a  coloration  of  its  own,  and  in  all  this  was  an 
emblem  of  the  Soul.  For  Space  and  Time  are  the  outward 
conditions  with  which  it  is  concerned,  and  it  adds  thereto 
abstract  ideas,  the  product  of  its  own  nature. 


230  THE  GREEK  AGE  OF  [CH.  VIL 

But  when  the  bubble  bursts  there  is  an  end  of  all  these 
relations.  No  longer  is  there  any  reflection  of  external 
forms,  no  longer  any  motion,  no  longer  any  innate 
qualities  to  add.  In  one  respect  the  bubble  is  annihilated, 
its  continued  *n  another  it  still  exists.  It  has  returned  to 
existence— its  that  infinite  expanse  m  comparison  with  which 
anx  it  is  altogether  insignificant  and  imperceptible. 
Transitory,  and  yet  eternal :  transitory,  since  all  its  rela- 
tions of  a  special  and  individual  kind  have  come  to  an 
end;  eternal  in  a  double  sense — the  sense  of  Platonism — 
since  it  was  connected  with  a  past  of  which  there  wras  no 
beginning,  and  continues  in  a  future  to  which  there  is  no 
end. 

(4.)  Of  the  possibility  of  a  criterion  of  truth.  An 
absolute  criterion  of  truth  must  at  once  accredit 
mt-riiiTor  itself,  as  well  as  other  things.  At  a  very  early 
truth— sense-  period  in  philosophy  the  senses  were  detected  as 
being  altogether  untrustworthy.  On  numberless 
occasions,  instead  of  accrediting,  they  discredit  themselves. 
A  stick,  having  a  spark  of  fire  at  one  end,  gives  rise  to  the 
appearance  of  a  circle  of  light  when  it  is  turned  round 
quickly.  The  rainbow  seems  to  be  an  actually  existing 
arch  until  the  delusion  is  detected  by  our  going  to  the 
place  over  which  it  seems  to  rest.  Nor  is  it  alone  as 
respects  things  for  which  there  is  an  exterior  basis  or 
foundation,  such  as  the  spark  of  fire  in  one  of  these  cases, 
and  the  drops  of  water  in  the  other.  Each  of  our  organs 
of  sense  can  palm  off  delusions  of  the  most  purely  fictitious 
kind.  The  eye  may  present  apparitions  as  distinct  as  the 
realities  among  which  they  place  themselves  ;  the  ear  may 
annoy  us  with  the  continual  repetition  of  a  murmuring 
sound,  or  parts  of  a  musical  strain,  or  articulate  voices, 
though  we  well  know  that  it  is  all  a  delusion ;  and  in  like 
manner,  in  their  proper  way,  in  times  of  health,  and 
especially  in  those  of  sickness,  will  the  other  senses  of 
taste,  and  touch,  and  smell  practise  ujon  us  their 
deceptions. 

This  being  the  case,  how  shall  we  know  that  any  infor- 
mation derived  from  such  unfaithful  sources  is  true? 
Pythagoras  rendered  a  great  service  in  telling  us  to 
remember  that  we  have  within  ourselves  a  means  of 


CH.  VII.]  INTELLECTUAL  DECREPITUDE.  231 

detecting  fallacy  and  demonstrating  truth.  What  is  it  that 
assures  us  of  the  unreality  of  the  fiery  circle,  the  rainbow, 
the  spectre,  the  voices,  the  crawling  of  insects  upon  the 
skin  ?  Is  it  not  reason  ?  To  reason  may  we  not  then  trust  ? 
With  such  facts  before  us,  what  a  crowd  of  inquiries  at 
once  presses  upon  our  attention — inquiries  which  even  in 
modern  times  have  occupied  the  thoughts  of  the  greatest 
metaphysicians.  Shall  we  begin  our  studies  by  UncertaintieB 
examining  sensations  or  by  examining  ideas?  in  phiio- 
Shall  we  say  with  Descartes  that  all  clear  ideas  "P"1"* 
are  true?  Shall  we  inquire  with  Spinoza  whether  we 
have  any  ideas  independent  of  experience  ?  With  Hobbes, 
shall  we  say  that  all  our  thoughts  are  begotten  by  and  are 
the  representatives  of  objects  exterior  to  us;  that  our  con- 
ceptions arise  in  material  motions  pressing  on  our  organs, 
producing  motion  in  them,  and  so  aifecting  the  mind  ;  that 
our  sensations  do  not  correspond  with  outward  qualities  ; 
that  sound  and  noise  belong  to  the  bell  and  the  air,  and  not 
to  the  mind,  and,  like  colour,  are  only  agitations  occasioned 
by  the  object  in  the  brain ;  that  imagination  is  a  concep- 
tion gradually  dying  away  after  the  act  of  sense,  and  is 
nothing  more  than  a  decaying  sensation  ;  that  memory  is 
the  vestige  of  former  impressions,  enduring  for  a  time ; 
that  forgetfulness  is  the  obliteration  of  such  vestiges ; 
that  the  succession  of  thought  is  not  indifferent,  at  random, 
or  voluntary,  but  that  thought  follows  thought  in  a  de- 
terminate and  predestined  sequence ;  that  whatever  we 
imagine  is  finite,  and  hence  we  cannot  conceive  of  the 
infinite,  nor  think  of  anything  not  subject  to  sense? 
Shall  we  say  with  Locke  that  there  are  two  sources  of  our 
ideas,  sensation  and  reflection  ;  that  the  mind  cannot  know 
things  directly,  but  only  through  ideas  ?  Shall  we  suggest 
with  Leibnitz  that  reflection  is  nothing  more  than  atten- 
tion to  what  is  passing  in  the  mind,  and  that  between  the 
mind  and  the  body  there  is  a  sympathetic  synchronism  ? 
With  Berkeley  shall  we  assert  that  there  is  no  other 
reason  for  inferring  the  existence  of  matter  itself  than  the 
necessity  of  having  some  synthesis  for  its  attributes  ;  that 
the  objects  of  knowledge  are  ideas  and  nothing  else  ;  and 
that  the  mind  is  active  in  sensation  ?  Shall  we  listen  to 
the  demonstration  of  Hume,  that,  if  matter  be  an  unreal 


232  THE  GREEK   AGE  OK  [dl.  VII. 

fiction,  the  mind  is  not  less  so,  since  it  is  no  more  than  a 
succession  of  impressions  and  ideas ;  that  our  belief  in 
causation  is  only  the  consequence  of  habit ;  and  that  \vo 
have  better  proof  that  night  is  the  cause  of  day,  than  of 
thousands  of  other  cases  in  which  we  persuade  ourselves 
that  we  know  the  right  relation  of  cause  and  effect ;  that 
from  habit  alone  we  believe  the  future  will  resemble  the 
past  ?  Shall  we  infer  with  Condillac  that  memory  is  only 
transformed  sensation,  and  comparison  double  attention ; 
that  every  idea  for  which  we  cannot  find  an  exterior  object 
is  destitute  of  significance ;  that  our  innate  ideas  come  by 
development,  and  that  reasoning  and  running  are  learned 
together.  With  Kant  shall  we  conclude  that  there  is  but 
one  source  of  knowledge,  the  union  of  the  object  and  the 
subject — but  two  elements  thereof,  space  and  time :  and 
that  they  are  forms  of  sensibility,  space  being  a  form  of 
internal  sensibility,  and  time  both  of  internal  and  ex- 
ternal, but  neither  of  them  having  any  objective  reality ; 
and  that  the  world  is  not  known  to  us  as  it  is,  but  only 
as  it  appears  ? 

I  admit  the  truth  of  the  remark  of  Posidonius  that  a 
man  might  as  well  be  content  to  die  as  to  cease  philo- 
sophizing ;  for,  if  there  are  contradictions  in  philosophy, 
there  are  quite  as  many  in  life.  In  the  light  of  this 
remark,  I  shall  therefore  not  hesitate  to  offer  a  fewsugges- 
R«-ronrk8on  tions  respecting  the  criterion  of  human  know- 
thec'iterion.  ledge,  undiscouraged  by  the  fact  that  so  many  of 
the  ablest  men  have  turned  their  attention  to  it.  In  this 
there  might  seem  to  be  presumption,  were  it  not  that  the 
advance  of  the  sciences,  and  especially  of  human  physiology 
has  brought  us  to  a  more  elevated  point  of  view,  and 
enabled  us  to  see  the  state  of  things  much  more  distinctly 
than  was  possible  for  our  predecessors. 

I  think  that  the  inability  of  ancient  philosophers  to 
furnish  a  true  solution  of  this  problem  was 

Defective  in-       -i ,          ,  v  .  ,  •,  f     t.  i     •     i       t 

formation  or  altogether  owing  to  the  imperfect,  and,  indeed, 
the^oid  pbiio-  erroneous  idea  they  had  of  the  position  of  man. 
They  gave  too  much  weight  to  his  personal  indi- 
viduality. In  the  mature  period  of  his  life  they  regarded 
him  as  isolated,  independent,  and  complete  in  himself. 
They  forgot  that  this  is  only  a  momentary  phase  in  hia 


CH.  VII,]  INTELLECTUAL  DECREPITUDE.  233 

existence,  which,  commencing  from  small  beginnings,  ex- 
hibits a  continuous  expansion  or  progress.  From  a  single 
cell,  scarcely  more  than  a  step  above  the  inorganic  state, 
not  differing,  as  we  may  infer  both  from  the  appearance  it 
offers  and  the  forms  through  which  it  runs  in  the  earlier 
stages  of  life,  from  the  cell  out  of  which  any  other  animal 
or  plant,  even  the  humblest,  is  derived,  a  passage  is  made 
through  form  after  form  in  a  manner  absolutely  depending 
upon  surrounding  physical  conditions.  The  history  is 
very  long,  and  the  forms  are  very  numerous, 

-L   x  Tr,      £.  f  .1.1  -Mi         Necessity  of  a 

between  the  first  appearance  of  the  primitive  more  general 
trace  and  the  hoarv  aspect  of  seventy  years.  It  conception  as 

f  .*  J ,  .      ,  toman. 

is  not  correct  to  take  one  moment  in  this  long 
procession  and  make  it  a  representative  of  the  whole.  It 
is  not  correct  to  say,  even  if  the  body  of  the  mature  man 
undergoes  unceasing  changes  to  an  extent  implying  the 
reception,  incorporation,  and  dismissal  of  nearly  a  ton  and 
a  half  of  material  in  the  course  of  a  year,  that  in  this  flux 
of  matter  there  is  not  only  a  permanence  of  form,  but, 
what  is  of  infinitely  more  importance,  an  unchangeable- 
ness  in  his  intellectual  powers.  It  is  not  correct  to  say 
this  ;  indeed,  it  is  wholly  untrue.  The  intellectual  princi- 
ple passes  forward  in  a  career  as  clearly  marked  as  that 
in  which  the  body  runs.  Even  if  we  overlook  the  time 
antecedent  to  birth,  how  complete  is  the  imbecility  of  his 
early  days  !  The  light  shines  upon  his  eyes,  he  sees  not; 
sounds  fall  upon  his  ear,  he  hears  not.  From  these  low 
beginnings  AVC  might  describe  the  successive  re-  Thc  whole 
enforcements  through  infancy,  childhood,  and  cycle  must  be 
youth  to  maturity.  And  what  is  the  result  to  lncluded« 
which  all  this  carries  us?  Is  it  not  that,  in  the  philo- 
sophical contemplation  of  man,  we  are  constrained  to 
reject  the  idea  of  personality,  of  individuality,  and  to  adopt 
that  of  a  cycle  of  progress ;  to  abandon  all  contemplation 
of  his  mere  substantial  form,  and  consider  his  abstract 
relation?  All  organic  forms,  if  compared  together  and 
examined  from  one  common  point  of  view,  are  found  to  be 
constructed  upon  an  identical  scheme.  It  is  as  in  some 
mathematical  expression  containing  constants  and  varia- 
bles ;  the  actual  result  changes  accordingly  as  we  assign 
successively  different  values  to  the  variables,  yet  in  thoso 


234  THE  GREEK   AGE  OF  [CH.  VII, 

different  results,  no  matter  how  numerous  they  may  be, 
the  original  formula  always  exists.  From  such  a  universal 
conception  of  the  condition  and  career  of  man,  we  rise  at 
once  to  the  apprehension  of  his  relations  to  others  like 
himself — that  is  to  say,  his  relations  as  a  member  of 
society.  We  perceive,  in  this  light,  that  society  must  run 
a  course  the  counterpart  of  that  we  have  traced  for  tho 
individual,  and  that  the  appearance  of  isolation  presented 
by  the  individual  is  altogether  illusory.  Each  individual 
and  also  bis  mau  drew  his  life  from  another,  and  to  another 
mc.>  connex-  man  he  gives  rise,  losing,  in  point  of  fact,  his 
aspect  of  individuality  when  these  his  race  con- 
nexions are  considered.  One  epoch  in  life  is  not  all  life. 
The  mature  individual  cannot  be  disentangled  from  tho 
multitudinous  forms  through  which  he  has  passed ;  and, 
considering  the  nature  of  his  primitive  conception  and  the 
issue  of  his  reproduction,  man  cannot  be  separated  from 
his  race. 

By  the  aid  of  these  views  of  the  nature  and  relationship 
of  man,  we  can  come  to  a  decision  respecting  his  possession 
of  a  criterion  of  truth.  In  the  earliest  moments  of  his 
existence  he  can  neither  feel  nor  think,  and  the  universe 
is  to  him  as  though  it  did  not  exist.  Considering  the 
progress  of  his  sensational  powers— his  sight,  hearing, 
touch,  etc. — these,  as  his  cycle  advances  to  its  maximum, 
become,  by  nature  or  by  education,  more  and  more  perfect ; 
but  never,  at  the  best,  as  tho  ancient  philosophers  well 
knew,  are  they  trustworthy.  And  so  of  his  intellectual 
powers.  They,  too,  begin  in  feebleness  and  gradually 
expand.  The  mind  alone  is  no  more  to  be  relied  on  than  the 
organs  of  sense  alone.  If  any  doubt  existed  on  this  point, 
the  study  of  the  phenomena  of  dreaming  is  sufficient  to 
remove  it,  for  dreaming  manifests  to  us  how  wavering  and 
unsteady  is  the  mind  in  its  operations  when  it  is  detached 
from  the  solid  support  of  the  organs  of  sense.  How  true 
is  the  remark  of  Philo  the  Jew,  that  the  mind  is  like  the 
eye;  for,  though  it  may  see  all  other  objects,  it  cannot 
Bee  itself,  and  therefore  cannot  judge  of  itself.  And  thus 
we  may  conclude  that  neither  are  the  senses  to  be  trusted 
alone,  nor  is  the  mind  to  be  trusted  alone.  In  the  conjoint 
action  of  the  two,  by  reason  of  the  mutual  checks 


CH.  VII.J  INTELLECTUAL  DECREPITUDE.  235 

established,  a  far  higher  degree  of  certainty  is  attained  to , 
yet  even  in  this,  the  utmost  vouchsafed  to  the  individual, 
there  is  not,  as  both  Greeks  and  Indians  ascertained,  an 
absolute  sureness.  It  was  the  knowledge  of  this  which 
extorted  from  them  so  many  melancholy  complaints,  which 
threw  them  into  an  intellectual  despair,  and  made  them, 
by  applying  the  sad  determination  to  Which  they  had 
come  to  the  course  of  their  daily  life,  sink  down  into 
indifference  and  infidelity. 

But  yet  there  is  something  more  in  reserve  for  man. 
Let  him  cast  off  the  clog  of  individuality,  and  remember 
that  he  has  race  connexions — connexions  which,  in  this 
matter  of  a  criterion  of  truth,  indefinitely  increase  his 
chances  of  certainty,  If  he  looks  with  contempt  on  the 
opinions  of  his  childhood,  with  little  consideration  on 
those  of  his  youth,  with  distrust  on  those  of  his  manhood, 
what  will  he  say  about  the  opinions  of  his  race  ?  Do  not 
such  considerations  teach  us  that,  through  all  these  succes- 
sive conditions,  the  criterion  of  truth  is  ever  advancing  in 
precision  and  power,  and  that  its  maximum  is  found  in  the 
unanimous  opinion  of  the  whole  human  race  ? 

Upon  these  principles  I  believe  that,  though  we  have 
not  philosophically  speaking,  any  absolute  cri-  Though  no 
terion  of  truth,  we  rise  by  degrees  to  higher  absolute  cri- 
and  higher  certainties  along  an  ascending  scale  a  practoi818* 
which  becomes  more  and  more  exact.  I  think  one  does, 
that  metaphysical  writers  who  have  treated  of  this  point 
have  been  led  into  error  from  an  imperfect  conception  of 
the  true  position  of  man ;  they  have  limited  their  thoughts 
to  a  single  epoch  of  his  course,  and  have  not  taken  an 
enlarged  and  philosophical  view.  In  thus  declining  the 
Oriental  doctrine  that  the  individual  is  the  centre  from 
which  the  universe  should  be  regarded,  and  transferring 
our  stand-point  to  a  more  comprehensive  and  solid  founda- 
tion, we  imitate,  in  metaphysics,  the  course  of  astronomy 
when  it  substituted  the  heliocentric  for  the  geocentric 
point  of  view,  and  the  change  promises  to  be  equally 
fertile  in  sure  results.  If  it  were  worth  while,  we  might 
proceed  to  enforce  this  doctrine  by  an  appeal  to  the  ex- 
perience of  ordinary  life.  How  often,  when  we  distrust 
our  own  judgment,  do  we  seek  support  in  the  advice  of  a 


236  THE  GREEK   AGE  OF  [CII.  VII, 

friend.  How  strong  is  our  persuasion  that  we  are  in  tho 
right  when  public  opinion  is  with  us.  For  this  even  tho 
Church  has  not  disdained  to  call  together  Councils,  aiming 
thereby  at  a  surer  means  of  arriving  at  the  truth.  The 
Council  is  more  trustworthy  than  an  individual,  whoever  ho 
may  be.  The  probabilities  increase  with  the  number  of 
The  maxi-  consenting  intellects,  and  hence  I  come  to  the 
mum  of  conclusion  that  in  the  unanimous  consent  of  tho 
the  human  entire  human  race  lies  the  human  criterion  of 
truth— a  criterion,  in  its  turn,  capable  of  in- 
creased precision  with  the  diffusion  of  enlightenment  and 
knowledge.  For  this  reason,  I  do  not  look  upon  tho 
prospects  of  humanity  in  so  cheerless  a  light  as  they  did 
of  old.  On  the  contrary,  ever  thing  seems  full  of  hope. 
Good  auguries  may  be  drawn  for  philosophy  from  the 
great  mechanical  and  material  inventions  which  multiply 
the  means  of  intercommunication,  and,  it  may  bo  said, 
annihilate  terrestrial  distances.  In  tho  intellectual  col- 
lisions that  must  ensue,  in  the  melting  down  of  opinions, 
in  the  examinations  and  analyses  of  nations,  truth  will 
come  forth.  Whatever  cannot  stand  that  ordeal  must 
submit  to  its  fate.  Lies  and  imposture,  no  matter  how 
powerfully  sustained,  must  prepare  to  depart.  In  that 
supreme  tribunal  man  may  place  implicit  confidence. 
Even  though,  philosophically,  it  is  far  from  absolute,  it 
is  the  highest  criterion  vouchsafed  to  him,  and  from  its 
decision  he  has  no  appeal. 

In  delivering  thus  emphatically  my  own  views  on  this 
profound  topic  perhaps  I  do  wrong.  It  is  becoming  to 
apeak  with  humility  on  that  which  has  been  glorified  by 
the  great  writers  of  Greece,  of  India,  of  Alexandria,  and, 
in  later  times,  of  Europe. 

In  conclusion,  I  would  remark  that  the  view  hero 
presented  of  the  results  of  Greek  philosophy  is  that  which 
offers  itself  to  me  after  a  long  and  careful  study  of  the 
Complete  an-  subject.  It  is,  however,  the  affirmative,  not 
ai« a- between  the  negative  result;  for  we  must  not  forget 
Indian  pro-  that  if,  on  the  one  hand,  the  pantheistic 
tiiou'  ht.  doctrines  of  the  Nature  of  God,  Universal  Ani- 
mation, the  theory  of  Emanation,  Transmuta- 
tion, Absorption,  Transmigration,  etc.,  were  adopted,  on 


CH.  VII.J  INTELLECTUAL  DECREPITUDE.  Ii37 

the  other  there  was  by  no  means  an  insignificant  tendency 
to  atheism  and  utter  infidelity.  Even  of  this  negative 
state  a  corresponding  condition  occurred  in  the  Buddhism 
of  India,  of  which  I  have  previously  spoken;  and,  indeed, 
so  complete  is  the  parallel  between  the  course  of  mental 
evolution  in  Asia  and  Europe,  that  it  is  difficult  to  desig- 
nate a  matter  of  minor  detail  in  the  philosophy  of  the  ono 
which  cannot  be  pointed  out  in  that  of  the  other.  It  was 
not  without  reason,  therefore,  that  the  Alexandrian  phi- 
losophers, who  were  profoundly  initiated  in  the  detail  of 
both  systems,  came  to  the  conclusion  that  such  surprising 
coincidences  could  only  be  accounted  for  upon  the  admis- 
sion that  there  had  been  an  ancient  revelation,  the  vestiges 
of  which  had  descended  to  their  time.  In  this,  however, 
they  judged  erroneously ;  the  true  explanation  consisting  in 
the  fact  that  the  process  of  development  of  the  intellect  of 
man,  and  the  final  results  to  which  he  arrives  in  examining 
similar  problems,  are  in  all  countries  the  same. 

It  does  not  fall  within  my  plan  to  trace  the  application 
of  these  philosophical  principles  to  practice  in  daily  life, 
yet  the  subject  is  of  such  boundless  interest  that  perhaps 
the  reader  will  excuse  a  single  paragraph.  It  may  seem 
to  superficial  observation  that,  whatever  might  be  the 
doctrinal  resemblances  of  these  philosophies,  their  applica- 
tion was  very  different.  In  a  general  way,  it 

\    -i    ,1          ,1  ,    •  1-1     Variation  of 

may  be  asserted  that  the  same  doctrines  which  practical 
in  India  led  to  the  inculcation  of  indifference  pjp,l.i?a^>n 
and  quietism,  led  to  Stoic  activity  in  Greece  and 
Italy.  If  the  occasion  permitted,  I  could,  nevertheless, 
demonstrate  in  this  apparent  divergence  an  actual  coin- 
cidence ;  for  the  mode  of  life  of  man  is  chiefly  determined 
by  geographical  conditions,  his  instinctive  disposition  to 
activity  increasing  with  the  latitude  in  which  he  lives. 
Under  the  equinoctial  line  he  has  no  disposition  for  exer- 
tion, his  physiological  relations  with  the  climate  making 
quietism  most  agreeable  to  him.  The  philosophical  formula 
which,  in  the  hot  plains  of  India,  finds  its  issue  in  a  life 
of  tranquillity  and  repose,  will  be  interpreted  in  the  more 
bracing  air  of  Europe  by  a  life  of  activity.  Thus,  in  later 
ages,  the  monk  of  Africa,  willingly  persuading  himself 
that  any  intervention  to  improve  Nature  is  a  revolt 


238        THE  GREEK  AGE  OF  INTELLECTUAL  DECREPITUDE.  [CH.  VII. 

against  the  providence  of  God,  spent  his  worthless  life  in 
weaving  baskets  and  mats,  or  in  solitaiy  meditation  in  the 
caves  of  the  desert  of  Thebais ;  but  the  monk  of  Europe 
encountered  the  labours  of  agriculture  and  social  activity, 
and  thereby  aided,  in  no  insignificant  manner,  in  tho 
civilization  of  England,  France,  and  Germany.  These 
things,  duly  considered,  lead  to  the  conclusion  that  human 
life,  in  its  diversities,  is  dependent  upon  and  determined 
by  primary  conditions  in  all  countries  and  climates 
essentially  the  same. 


CHAPTEE  VIII. 

DIGRESSION  ON  THE  HISTOEY  AND  PHILOSOPHICAL 
INFLUENCES  OF  EOME. 

PREPARATION  FOB  RESUMING   THE   EXAMINATION    OP   THE  INTELLECTUAL 
PROGRESS  OP   EUROPE. 

Religious  Idea*  of  the  primitive  Europeans. — The  Form  of  their  Varia- 
tions is  determined  by  the  Influence  of  Home. — Necessity  of  Roman 
History  in  these  Investigations. 

Rise  and  Development  of  Roman  Power,  its  successive  Phases,  territorial 
Acquisitions. — Becomes  Supreme  in  the  Mediterranean. —  Consequent 
Demoralization  of  Italy.  —  Irresistible  Concentration  of  Power. — 
Development  cf  Imperialism. — Eventual  Extinction  of  the  true  Roman 
Race. 

Effect  on  the  intellectual,  religious,  and  social  Condition  of  the  Mediter- 
ranean Countries.  —  Produces  homogeneous  Thought.  —  Imperialism 
prepares  the  Way  for  Monotheism. — Momentous  Transition  of  the 
Roman  World  in  its  religious  Ideas. 

Opinions  of  the  Roman  Philosophers. —  Coalescence  of  the  new  and  old 
Ideas.— Seizure  of  Power  by  the  Illiterate,  and  consequent  Debasement 
of  Christianity  in  Rone. 

FROM  the  exposition  of  the  intellectual  progress  of  Greece 
given   in   the  preceding   pages,  we   now   turn,  Trangitlon 
agreeably  to  the  plan  laid  down,  to  an  examina-  from  Greece 
tion  of  that  of  all  Europe.    The  movement  in  toEur°Pe- 
that  single  nation  is  typical  of  the  movement  of  the  entire 
continent. 

The  first  European  intellectual  age— that  of  Credulity — 
has  already,  in  part,  been  considered  in  Chapter  II.,  more 
especially  so  far  as  Greece  is  concerned.  I  pro-  European  ags 
pose  now,  after  some  necessary  remarks  in  of  inquiry, 
conclusion  of  that  topic,  to  enter  on  the  description  of  the 
second  European  age — that  of  Inquiry. 

For  these  remarks,  what  has  already  been  said  of  Grecco 


240  THE   HISTORY   AND   PHILOSOPHICAL  [~CH.  VIII. 

prepares  the  way.  Mediterranean  Europe  was  philosophi- 
cally and  socially  in  advance  of  the  central  and  northern 
countries.  The  wave  of  civilization  passed  from  the  south 
to  the  north ;  in  truth,  it  has  hardly  yet  reached  its 
extreme  limit.  The  adventurous  emigrants  who  in  remote 
times  had  come  from  Asia  left  to  the  successive  generations 
of  their  descendants  a  legacy  of  hardship.  In  the  struggle 
for  life,  all  memory  of  an  Oriental  parentage  was  lost; 
knowledge  died  away ;  religious  ideas  became  debased ; 
and  the  diverse  populations  sank  into  the  same  intellectual 
condition  that  they  would  have  presented  had  they  been 
proper  autochthons  of  the  soil. 

The  religion  of  the  barbarian  Europeans  was  in  many 
respects  like  that  of  the  American  Indians.  They  recog- 
nized a  Great  Spirit — ommiscient,  omnipotent,  omnipresent. 
Religion  of  the  In  the  earliest  times  they  made  no  representation 
ow  Europeans.  of  fcm  under  the  human  form,  nor  had  they 
temples ;  but  they  propitated  him  by  sacrifices,  offering 
animals,  as  the  horse,  and  even  men,  upon  rude  altars. 
Though  it  was  believed  that  this  Great  Spirit  might  some- 
times be  heard  in  the  sounds  of  the  forests  at  night,  yet, 
for  the  most  part,  ho  was  too  far  removed  from  human 
supplication,  and  hence  arose,  from  the  mere  sorcerous 
ideas  of  a  terrifipd  fancy,  as  has  been  the  case  in  so  many 
other  countries,  star  worship — the  second  stage  of  compara- 
tive theology.  The  gloom  and  shade  of  dense  forests,  a 
solitude  that  offers  an  air  of  sanctity,  and  seems  a  fitting 
resort  for  mysterious  spirits,  suggested  the  establishment 
of  sacred  groves  and  holy  trees.  '1  hroughout  Europe  there 
was  a  confused  idea  that  the  soul  exists  after  the  death  of 
the  body ;  as  to  its  particular  state  there  was  a  diversity 
of  belief.  As  among  other  people,  also,  the  offices  of 
religion  were  not  only  directed  to  the  present  benefit  of 
individuals,  but  also  to  the  discovery  of  future  events  by 
various  processes  of  divination  and  augury  practised  among 
the  priests. 

Although  the  priests  had  thus  charge  of  the  religious 

Their  priest-    rites,  they  do  not  seem  to  have  been  organized  in 

such  a  manner  as  to  be  able  to  act  with  unanimity 

or  to  pursue  a  steady  system  of  policy.     A  class  of  female 

religious  officials* — prophetesses— joined  in  the  ceremonials, 


II.  Vill.]  INFLUENCES   OF   ROME.  241 

These  holy  women,  who  were  held  in  very  great  esteem, 
prepared  the  way  for  the  reception  of  Mariolatry.  Instead 
of  temples — rock-altars,  cromlechs,  and  other  rustic 
structures  wero  used  among  the  Celtic  nations  by  the 
Druids,  who  were  at  the  same  time  priests,  magicians,  and 
medicine-men.  Their  religious  doctrines,  which  recall  in 
many  particulars  those  of  the  Rig-Veda,  were  perpetuated 
from  generation  to  generation  by  the  aid  of  songs. 

The  essential  features  of  this  system  were  its  purely 
local  form  and  its  want  of  a  well-organized  hierarchy. 
Even  the  Celts  offer  no  exception,  though  they  had  a 
subordination  from  the  Arch-Druid  downward.  This  was 
the  reason  of  the  Aveakriess  of  the  old  faith  and  eventually 
the  cause  of  its  fall.  When  the  German  nations  migrated 
to  the  south  in  their  warlike  expeditions,  they  left  behind 
thorn  their  consecrated  groves  and  sacred  oaks,  hallowed  by 
immemorial  ages.  These  objects  the  devotee  an.j .  bj  cts  of 
could  not  carry  with  him,  and  no  equivalent  sub-  "doratton. 
stitute  could  be  obtained  for  them.  Jn  the  civilized  countries 
to  which  they  came  they  met  with  a  very  different  state  of 
things  ;  a  priesthood  thoroughly  organized  and  modelled 
according  to  the  ancient  Roman  political  system;  its 
objects  of  reverence  tied  to  no  particular  locality ;  its 
institutions  capable  of  universal  action  ;  its  sacred  writings 
easy  of  transportation  anywhere  ;  its  emblems  moveable  to 
all  countries  —the  cross  on  the  standards  of  its  armies,  the 
crucifix  on  the  bosom  of  its  saints.  In  the  midst  of  the 
noble  architecture  of  Italy  and  the  splendid  remains  of 
these  Romans  who  had  once  given  laws  to  the  world,  in  the 
midst  of  a  worship  distinguished  by  the  magnificence  of  its 
ceremonial  and  the  solemnity  of  its  mysteries, 
they  found  a  people  whose  faith  taught  them  to  Roman00 
regard  the  present  life  as  offering  only  a  transi-  cim-^ianity 

1    .  ,  „  *  ,        upon  them 

tory  occupation,  and  not  for  a  moment  to  be 
weighed  against  the  eternal  existence  hereafter — an  exist- 
ence very  different  from  that  of  the  base  transmigration 
of  Druidism  or  the  Drunken  Paradise  of  Woden,  where  the 
brave  solace  themselves  with  mead  from  cups  made  of  the 
skulls  of  their  enemies  killed  in  their  days  upon  earth. 

The  European  age  of  inquiry  is  therefore  essentially 
connected  with  Roman  affairs.     It  is  distinguished  by  tho 

VOL.  I.— 12 


242  THE  HISTORY   AND  PHILOSOPHICAL  [CH.  VIII. 

religious   direction  it  took.      In   place  of  the  dogmas  of 

rival  philosophical  schools,  we  have  now  to  deal 

Roma's0'  with  the  tenets  of  conflicting  sects.     The  whole 

tory  in  this      history   of  those  unhappy   times    displays    the 

investigation.  V  .  ,  x-      i         •    -j.      i.  • •    .•          f 

organizing  and  practical  spirit  characteristic  of 
Rome.  Greek  democracy,  tending  to  the  decomposition  of 
things,  led  to  the  Sophists  and  Sceptics.  Roman  imperialism, 
ever  constructive,  sought  to  bring  unity  out  of  discords, 
and  draw  the  line  between  orthodoxy  and  heresy  by  the 
authority  of  councils  like  that  of  Nicca.  Following  tho 
ideas  of  St.  Augustine  in  his  work,  "  The  City  of  God,"  I 
adopt,  as  the  most  convenient  termination  of  this  age,  tho 
sack  of  Rome  by  Alaric.  This  makes  it  overlap  the  ago 
of  Faith,  which  had,  as  its  unmistakable  beginning,  the 
foundation  of  Constantinople. 

Greek  intellectual  life  displays  all  its  phases  completely, 
but  not  so  was  it  with  that  of  the  Komans,  who  came  to  an 
untimely  end.  They  were  men  of  violence,  who  disappeared 
in  consequence  of  their  own  conquests  and  crimes.  Tho 
consumption  of  them  by  war  bore,  however,  an  insignifi- 
cant proportion  to  that  fatal  diminution,  that  mortal 
adulteration  occasioned  by  their  merging  in  the  vast  mass 
of  humanity  with  which  they  came  in  contact. 

I  approach  the  consideration  of  Roman  affairs,  which  is 
thus  the  next  portion  of  my  task,  with  no  little  diffidence. 
It  is  hard  to  rise  to  a  point  of  view  sufficiently  elevated 
and  clear,  where  the  extent  of  dominion  is  so  great 
geographically,  and  the  reasons  of  policy  are  obscured  by 
Great  dim-  *ne  dimness  and  clouds  of  so  many  centuries, 
cuity  of  tieat-  Living  in  a  social  state  the  origin  of  which  is  in 
the  events  now  to  be  examined,  our  mental  vision 
can  hardly  free  itself  from  the  illusions  of  historical  per- 
spective, or  bring  things  into  their  just  proportions  and 
position.  Of  a  thousand  acts,  all  of  surpassing  interest 
and  importance,  how  shall  we  identify  the  master  ones  ? 
how  shall  we  discern  with  correctness  the  true  relation  of 
the  parts  of  this  wonderful  phenomenon  of  empire,  tho 
vanishing  events  of  which  glide  like  dissolving  views  into 
each  other  ?  Warned  by  the  example  of  those  who  have 
permitted  the  shadows  of  their  own  imagination  to  fall 
upjn  tho  scene,  and  have  mistaken  them  for  a  part  of  it,  I 


CM.  VIII.]  INFLUENCES   OF   ROME.  243 

shall  endeavour  to  apply  the  test  of  common  sense  to  the 
facts  of  which  it  will  be  necessary  to  treat ;  and,  believing 
that  man  has  ever  been  the  same  in  his  modes  of  thought 
and  motives  of  action,  I  shall  judge  of  past  occurrences  in 
tho  same  way  as  of  those  of  our  own  times. 

In  its  entire  form  the  Eoman  power  consists  of  two 
theocracies,  with  a  military  domination  intercalated. 
The  first  of  these  theocracies  corresponds  to  Triple  form  of 
the  fabulous  period  of  the  kings;  the  military  Koman  power. 
domination  to  the  time  of  the  republic  and  earlier  Caesars  ; 
the  second  theocracy  to  that  of  the  Christian  emperors 
and  the  Popes. 

The  first  theocrac}1"  is  so  enveloped  in  legends  and 
fictions  that  it  is  impossible  to  give  a  satisfactory  account 
of  it.  The  biographies  of  the  kings  offer  such  undeniable 
evidence  of  being  mere  romances,  that,  since  the  time  of 
Niebuhr,  they  have  been  received  by  historians  in  that 
light.  But  during  the  reigns  of  the  pagan 

.,  P      f      •        -D  j.       •       •  The  first  thco- 

emperors  it  was  not  sate  in  Home  to  insinuate  Cracy  and 
publicly  any  disbelief  in  such  honoured  legends  [:me<£dary 
as  those  of  the  wolf  that  suckled  the  found- 
lings ;  the  ascent  of  Romulus  into  heaven ;  the  nymph 
Egeria  ;  the  duel  of  the  Horatii  and  Curiatii ;  the  leaping 
of  Curtius  into  the  gulf  on  his  horse  ;  the  cutting  of  a  flint 
with  a  razor  by  Tarquin ;  tho  Sibyl  and  her  books.  The 
modern  historian  has,  therefore,  only  very  little  reliable 
material.  He  may  admit  that  tho  Romans  and  Sabines 
coalesced ;  that  they  conquered  the  Albans  and  Latins ; 
that  thousands  of  the  latter  were  transplanted  to  Mount 
Aventine  and  made  plebeians  ;  these  movements  being  the 
origin  of  the  castes  which  long  afflicted  Rome,  Early  Roman 
the  vanquished  people  constituting  a  subor-  history- 
dinate  class ;  that  at  first  the  chief  occupation  was 
agriculture,  the  nature  of  which  is  not  only  to  accustom 
men  to  the  gradations  of  rank,  such  as  the  proprietor  of 
the  land,  tho  overseer,  the  labourer,  but  also  to  the 
cultivation  of  religious  sentiment,  and  even  the  cherish- 
ing of  superstition  ;  that,  besides  the  more  honourable 
occupations  in  which  the  rising  state  was  engaged,  she 
had,  from  the  beginning,  indulged  in  aggressive  war,  and 
was  therefore  perpetually  liable  to  reprisal — one  of  hei 


244  THE   HISTORY   AND   PHILOSOPHICAL  [CH.  VIIL. 

first  acts  was  the  founding  of  the-  town  of  Ostia,  at  tho 
mouth  of  the  Tiber,  on  account  of  piracy ;  that,  through 
some  conspiracy  in  the  army,  indicated  in  the  legend  of 
Lucretia,  since  armies  have  often  been  known  to  do  such 
things,  tho  kings  were  expelled,  and  a  military  domination 
fancifully  called  a  republic,  but  consisting  of  a  league  of 
come  powerful  families,  arose. 

Throughout  the  regal  times,  and  far  into  tho  republican, 
tho  chief  domestic  incidents  turn  on  the  strife  of  the  upper 
caste  or  patricians  with  the  lower  or  plebeians,  mani- 
festing itself  by  the  latter  asserting  their  right  to  a  share 
in  the  lands  conquered  by  their  valour ;  by  the  extortion 
of  the  Valerian  law  ;  by  the  admission  of  tho  Latins  and 
Hernicans  to  conditions  of  equality  ;  by  the  transference  of 
the  election  of  tribunes  from  the  centuries  to  the  tribes ;  by 
the  repeal  of  the  law  prohibiting  the  marriage  of  plebeians 
with  patricians  and  by  the  eventual  concession  to  the  former 
of  the  offices  of  consul,  dictator,  censor,  and  prsetor. 

In  these  domestic  disputes  we  see  the  origin  of  tho 
The  domestic  Roman  necessity  for  war.  The  high  caste  is 
necessity  for  steadily  diminishing  in  number,  the  low  caste 
>reign  war.  ag  Kteadily  increasing.  In  imperious  pride,  the 
patrician  fills  his  private  jail  with  debtors  and  delin- 
quents :  he  usurps  the  lands  that  have  been  conquered. 
Insurrection  is  the  inevitable  consequence,  foreign  war 
the  only  relief.  As  the  circle  of  operations  extends,  both 
parties  see  their  interest  in  a  cordial  coalescence  on  equal 
terms,  and  jointly  tyrannize  exteriorly. 

The  geographical  dominion  of  Rome  was  extended  at 
first  with  infinite  difficult}1".  Up  to  tho  time  of  the  capture 
of  the  city  by  the  Gauls  a  doubtful  existence  was  main- 
tained in  perpetual  struggles  with  the  adjacent  towns 
and  chieftains.  There  is  reason  to  believe  that  in  tho 
very  infancy  of  the  republic,  in  tho  contest  that  ensued 
upon  the  expulsion  of  the  kings,  the  city  was  taken  by 
Porsenna.  The  direction  in  which  her  influence  first 
gradual  spread  was  toward  the  south  of  the  peninsula. 
*pread  of  Tarentum,  one  of  the  southern  states,  brought 

Koman  in-  . .    '          .  -r»         i  ±t        -n     •  TT 

fluence  to  the  over  to  its  assistance  1  yrrhus  the  kpirot.  Ho 
•outh.  ^jj  little  in  the  way  of  assisting  his  allies — 

he  only  t>uw  Eomo  from  tho  Acropolis  of  l'ra;uc.sto ;  but 


OH.  VIII.]  INFLUENCES  OF  ROME.  245 

from  him  the  Eomans  learned  the  art  of  fortifying  camps, 
and  caught  the  idea  of  invading  Sicily.  Here  the  rising 
republic  came  in  contact  with  the  Carthaginians,  and  in 
the  conflict  that  ensued  discovered  the  military  value 
of  Spain  and  Gaul,  from  which  the  Carthaginians  drew 
an  immense  supply  of  mercenaries  and  munitions  of  war. 
The  advance  to  greatness  which  Kome  now  made  was 
prodigious.  She  saw  that  everything  turned  Romebuius 
on  the  possession  of  the  sea,  and  with  admir-  a  navy, 
able  energy  built  a  navy.  In  this  her  expectations  were 
more  than  realized.  The  assertion  is  quite  true  that  she 
spent  more  time  in  acquiring  a  little  earth  in  Italy  than 
was  necessary  for  subduing  the  world  after  she  had  once 
obtained  possession  of  the  Mediterranean.  From  the  expe- 
rience of  Agathocles  she  learned  that  the  true  method  of 
controlling  Carthage  was  by  invading  Africa,  and  invades 
The  principles  involved  in  the  contest,  and  the  Africa- 
position  of  Kome  at  its  close,  are  shown  by  the  terms  of 
the  treaty  of  the  first  Punic  \\ar — that  Carthage  should 
evacuate  every  island  in  the  Mediterranean,  and  neguitgofth, 
pay  a  war-fine  of  six  hundred  thousand  pounds,  first  Punic 
In  her  devotion  to  the  acquisition  of  wealth  "' 
Carthage  had  become  very  rich ;  she  had  reached  a  high 
state  of  cultivation  of  art ;  yet  her  prosperity,  or  rather 
the  mode  by  which  she  had  attained  it,  had  greatly 
weakened  her,  as  also  had  the  political  anomaly  under 
which  she  was  living,  for  it  is  an  anomaly  that  an  Asiatic 
people  should  place  itself  under  democratic  forms.  Her 
condition  in  this  respect  was  evidently  the  consequence  of 
her  original  subordinate  position  as  a  Tyrian  trading 
station,  her  rich  men  having  long  been  habituated  to  look 
to  the  mother  city  for  distinction.  As  in  other  com- 
mercial states,  her  citizens  became  soldiers  with  reluct- 
ance, and  hence  she  had  often  to  rely  on  mercenary  troops. 
From  her  the  Komans  received  lessons  of  the  utmost 
importance.  She  confirmed  them  in  the  estimate  they 
had  formed  of  the  value  of  naval  power;  taught  them 
how  to  build  ships  properly  and  handle  them;  how  to 
make  military  roads.  The  tribes  of  Northern  Italy  were 
hardly  included  in  the  circle  of  Kornan  dominion  when  a 
fleet  was  built  in  the  Adriatic,  and,  under  the  pretence  of 


246  THE  HISTORY  AND   PHILOSOPHICAL  [CH.  VIII. 

putting  down  piracy,  the  sea  power  of  the  Illyrians  was 
extinguished.  From  time  immemorial  the  Mediterranean 
had  been  infested  with  pirates ;  man-stealing  had  been 
a  profitable  occupation,  great  gains  being  realized  by 
ransoms  of  captives,  or  by  selling  them  at  Delos  or  other 
slave-markets.  At  this  time  it  was  clear  that  the  final 
mastery  of  the  Mediterranean  turned  on  the  possession  of 
Spain,  the  great  silver- producing  country.  The  rivalry 
for  Spain  occasioned  the  second  Punic  War.  It  is  need- 
iiesuits  <.f  the  IGSS  *°  rePea*  tne  well-known  story  of  llaniii- 
second  runic  bal,  how  he  brought  Rome  to  the  brink  of  ruin. 

The  relations  she  maintained  with  surrounding 
communities  had  been  such  that  she  could  not  trust  to 
them.  Her  enemy  found  allies  in  many  of  the  Greek 
towns  in  the  south  of  Italy.  It  is  enough  for  us  to  look 
at  the  result  of  that  conflict  in  the  treaty  that  closed  it. 
Carthage  had  to  give  up  all  her  ships  of  war  except  ten 
triremes,  to  bind  herself  to  enter  into  no  war  without  the 
consent  of  the  Roman  people,  and  to  pay  a  war-fine  of  two 
millions  of  pounds.  Rome  now  entered,  on  the  great 
scale,  on  the  policy  of  disorganizing  states  for  the  purpose 
of  weakening  them.  Under  pretext  of  an  'invitation 
from  the  Athenians  to  protect  them  from  the  King  of 
Rome  invades  Macedon,  the  ambitious  republic  secured  a  foot- 
Greece,  jng  jn  Greece,  the  principle  developed  in  the 
invasion  of  Africa  of  making  war  maintain  war  being 
again  resorted  to.  There  may  have  been  tmth  in  the 
Roman  accusation  that  the  intrigues  of  Hannibal  with 
Antiochus,  king  of  Syria,  occasioned  the  conflict  between 
Rome  and  that  monarch.  Its  issue  was  a  prodigious  event 
in  the  material  aggrandizement  of  Rome — it  was  the 
cession  of  all  his  possessions  in  Europe  and  those  of  Asia 

north   of  Mount   Taurus,   with  a  war-fine    of 

and  compels        .  „,.  „  .          , 

the  cession  of  three  millions  of  pounds.  Already  were  seen 
n'.'pean  5£_  the  effects  of  the  wealth  that  was  pouring  into 
vmccsof  An-  Italy  in  the  embezzlement  of  the  public  money 

by  the  Scipios.  The  resistance  of  Perses,  king 
of  Macedon,  could  not  restore  independence  to  Greece; 
Revolt  of  Per-  it  ended  in  the  annexation  of  that  country, 

Epirus  and  Illyricum.  The  results  of  this  war 
were  to  the  last  degree  pernicious  to  the  victors  and  the 


CH.  VIII.]  INFLUENCES  OF  ROME.  ?47 

vanquished :  the  moral  greatness  of  the  farmer  is  truly 
affirmed,  to  have  disappeared,  and  the  social  ruin  of  the 
latter  was  so  complete  that  for  long   marriage  was   re- 
placed  lay   concubinage.     The   policy  and    practices    of 
Rome  now  literally  became  infernal ;  she  forced  a  qiiarrel 
upon  her  old  antagonist  Carthage,  and  the  third  Punic 
War  resulted   in   the   utter  destruction    of    that    city. 
Simultaneously    her    oppressions    in     Greece  Dreadful 
provoked  revolt,  which  was  ended  by  the  sack  social  effects 
and   burning  of  Corinth,  Thebes,  Chalcis,  and  OI 
the  transference  of  the  plundered  statues,  paintings,  and 
works   of  art  to  Italy.     There  was   nothing  now  in  the 
way  of  the  conquest  of  Spain  except   the  valour  of  its 
inhabitants.     After   the    assassination    of  Viriatus,   pro- 
cured by  the  Consul  Csepio,  and   the   horrible 
siege  of  Numantia,  that  country  was  annexed  Greece^ami 
as  a  province.     Next  we  see  the  gigantic  re-  annexation  of 
public  extending  itself  over  the  richest  parts  of 
Asia   Minor,  through  the  insane  bequest  of  Attalus,  king 
of  Pergamus.     The  wealth  of  Africa,  Spain,  Greece,  and 
Asia,  was  now  concentrating  in  Italy,  and  the  capital  was 
becoming  absolutely  demoralized.     In  vain  the  Gracchi 
attempted   to  apply  a  remedy.     The  Roman  aristocracy 
was    intoxicated,    insatiate,   irresistible.     The  seizure  of 
middle  class  was  gone;  there  was  nothing  but  Asia  Minor, 
profligate  nobles  and  a  diabolical  populace.    In  the  midst 
of  inconceivable  corruption,   the  Jugurthine  War  served 
only  to  postpone   for  a  moment  an  explosion  which  was 
inevitable.     The  Servile  rebellion  in  Sicily  broke  out ;  it 
was  closed  by  the  extermination  of  a  million  of  The  ^^.^ 
those  unhappy  wretches :  vast  numbers  of  them  and  social 
were  exposed,  for  the  popular  amusement,   ta  * 
the  wild  beasts  in  the  arena.     It  was  followed  closely  by 
the  revolt  of  the  Italian  allies,  known  as  the  Social  War — • 
this  ending,  after  the  destruction  of  half  a  million  of  men, 
with  a  better  result,  in  the  extortion  of  the  freedom  of 
the  city  by  several  of  the  revolting  states.     Doubtless  it 
was  the  intrigues  connected  with  these  transactions  that 
brought  the  Cimbri  and  Teutons  into  Italy,  and  furnished 
an  opening  for  the  rivalries  of  Marius  and  Sylla,  who,  in 
turn,  filled  Rome  with  slaughter.     The  same  spirit  broke 


248  THE  HISTORY  AND  PHILOSOPHICAL  [en.  VHI. 

out  under  the  gladiator  Spartacus :  it  was  only  checked 
for  a  time  by  resorting  to  the  most  awful  atrocities,  such 
as  the  crucifixion  of  prisoners,  to  appear  under  another 
form  in  the  conspiracy  of  Catiline.  And  now  it  was 
plain  that  the  contest  for  supreme  power  lay  between  a 
few  leading  men.  It  found  an  issue  in  the  first 

iTlaGual  COu-  ,  ,  •  t*     T»  /-* 

vergenccof  triumvirate — a  union  of  lompey,  Crassus,  and 
Caesar,  who  usurped  the  whole  power  of  the 
senate  and  people,  and  bound  themselves  by  oath  to 
permit  nothing  to  be  done  without  their  unanimous 
consent.  Affairs  then  passed  through  their  inevitable 
Cspsarthe  course.  The  death  of  Crassus  and  the  battle 
master  of  the  of  Pharsalia  left  Ciesar  the  master  of  the  world. 
At  this  moment  nothing  could  have  prevented 
the  inevitable  result.  The  dagger  of  Brutus  merely 
removed  a  man,  but  it  left  the  fact.  The  battle  of 
Actium  reaffirmed  the  destiny  of  Rome,  and  the  death  of 
the  republic  was  illustrated  by  the  annexation  of  Egypt. 
The  circle  of  conquest  around  the  Mediterranean  was 
complete  ;  the  function  of  the  republic  was  discharged  :  it 
did  not  pass  away  prematurely. 

From  this  statement  of  the  geographical  career  of  Rome, 
we  may  turn  to  reflect  on  the  political  principles  which 
inspired  her.  From  a  remote  antiquity  wars  had  been 
Ancient  ne-  engaged  in  for  the  purpose  of  obtaining  a 
ce&sity  for  supply  of  labour,  the  conqueror  compelling  those 
whom  ho  had  spared  to  cultivate  his  fields  and 
serve  him  as  slaves.  Under  a  system  of  transitory  military 
domination,  it  was  more  expedient  to  exhaust  a  people  at 
once  by  the  most  unsparing  plunder  than  to  be  content 
with  a  tribute  periodically  paid,  but  necessarily  uncertain 
in  the  vicissitudes  of  years.  These  elementary  principles 
of  the  policy  of  antiquity  were  included  by  the  Romans  in 
their  system  with  modifications  and  improvements. 

The  republic,  during  its  whole  career,  illustrates  the 
observation  that  the  system  on  which  it  was  founded 
included  no  conception  of  the  actual  relations  of  man. 
It  dealt  with  him  as  a  thing,  not  as  a  being  endowed 
with  inalienable  rights.  Recognizing  power  as  its  only 
measure  of  value,  it  could  never  accept  the  principle  of 
the  equality  of  all  men.  in  the  eye  of  the  law.  The  sub- 


OH.  VIII.  J  INFLUENCES  OF  ROME.  249 

jugation  of  Sicily,  Africa,  Greece,  was  quickly  followed  by 
the  depopulation  of  those  countries,  as  Livy, 
Plutarch,  Strabo,  and  Polybius  testify.  Can  of^untrios"1 
there  be  a  more  fearful  instance  than  the  after  Roman 
conduct  of  Paulus  ^Emilius,  who,  at  the  con- 
quest of  Epirus,  murdered  or  carried  into  slavery  150,000 
persons  ?  At  the  taking  of  Thebes  whole  familes  were 
thus  disposed  of,  and  these  not  of  the  lower,  but  of  the 
respectable  kind,  of  whom  it  has  been  significantly  said 
that  they  were  transported  into  Italy  to  be  melted  down. 
In  Italy  itself  the  consumption  of  life  was  so  great  that 
there  was  no  possibility  of  the  slaves  by  birth  meeting 
the  requirement,  and  the  supply  of  others  by  war  became 
necessary.  To  these  slaves  the  laws  were  atro-  Atroclty  of 
ciously  unjust.  Tacitus  has  recorded  that  on  the  Roman 
the  occasion  of  the  murder  of  Pedanius,  after  slave'1; 
a  solemn  debate  in  the  senate,  the  particulars  of  which 
he  furnishes,  the  ancient  laws  were  enforced,  and  four 
hundred  slaves  of  the  deceased  were  put  to  death,  when  it 
was  obvious  to  every  one  that  scarcely  any  of  them  had 
known  of  the  crime.  The  horrible  maxim  that  not  only 
the  slaves  within  a  house  in  which  a  master  was  murdered, 
but  even  those  within  a  circle  supposed  to  be  measured  by 
the  reach  of  his  voice,  should  be  put  to  death,  shows  us 
the  small  value  of  the  life  of  these  unfortunates,  and  the 
facility  with  which  they  could  be  replaced.  Their  vast 
numbers  necessarily  made  every  citizen  a  soldier ;  the 
culture  of  the  land  and  the  manufacturing  processes,  the 
pursuits  of  labour  and  industry,  were  assigned  j^..^  effects 
to  them  with  contempt.  The  relation  of  the  of  the  Roman 
slave  in  such  a  social  system  is  significantly  sl 
shown  by  the  fact  that  the  courts  estimated  the  amount  of 
any  injury  he  had  received  by  the  damage  his  master  had 
thereby  sustained.  To  such  a  degree  had  this  system 
been  developed,  that  slave  labour  was  actually  cheaper 
than  animal  labour,  and,  as  a  consequence,  much  of  the 
work  that  we  perform  by  cattle  was  then  done  by  men. 
The  class  of  independent  hirelings,  which  should  have 
constituted  the  chief  strength  of  the  country,  disappeared, 
labour  itself  becoming  so  ignoble  that  the  poor  citizen  could 
not  be  an  artisan,  but  must  remain  a  pauper— a  sturdy 

12* 


250  THE  HISTORY   AND  PHILOSOPHICAL  [CH.  VIII. 

beggar,  expecting  from  the  state  bread  and  amuse- 
ments. The  personal  uncleannesss  and  shiftless  condition 
of  these  lower  classes  were  the  true  causes  of  the  preva- 
lence of  leprosy  and  other  loathsome  diseases.  Attempts 
at  sanitary  improvement  were  repeatedly  made,  but  they 
so  imperfectly  answered  the  purpose  that  epidemics,  occur- 
ring from  time  to  time,  produced  a  dreadful  mortality. 
Even  under  the  Caesars,  after  all  that  had  been  done,  there 
was  no  essential  amendment.  The  assertion  is  true  that 
the  Old  World  never  recovered  from  the  great  plague  in 
the  time  of  M.  Antoninus,  brought  by  the  army  from 
the  Parthian  \Var.  In  the  reign  of  Titus  ten  thousand 
persons  died  in  one  day  in  Rome. 

The  slave  system  bred  that  thorough  con  tempt  for  trade 
which  animated  the  Romans.  They  never  grudged  even 
the  Carthaginians  a  market.  It  threw  them  into 
the  occupation  of  the  demagogue,  making  them  spend 
their  lives,  when  not  engaged  in  war,  in  the  in- 
trigiies  of  political  factions,  the  turbulence  of  public 
elections,  the  excitement  of  lawsuits.  They  were  the 
first  to  discover  that  the  privilege  of  interpreting  laws  is 
nearly  equal  to  that  of  making  them  ;  and  to  this  has  been 
rightly  attributed  their  turn  for  jurisprudence,  and  the 
prosperity  of  advocates  among  them.  The  disappearance 
of  the  hireling  class  was  the  immediate  cause  of  the 
downfall  of  the  republic  and  the  institution  of  the  empire, 
for  the  aristocracy  were  left  without  any  antagonist,  and 
therefore  without  any  restraint.  They  broke  up  into 
factions,  involving  the  country  in  civil  war  by  their 
Struggles  with  each  other  for  power. 

The  political  maxims  of  the  republic,  for  the  most  part, 
rejected  the  ancient  system  of  devastating  a  vanquished 
state  by  an  instant,  unsparing,  and  crushing  plunder, 
which  may  answer  very  well  where  the  tenure  is*  expected 
The  war  ays-  to  be  brief,  but  does  not  accord  with  the  formula 
subdue,  retain,  advance.  Yet  depopulation  was 
the  necessary  incident.  Italy,  Sicily,  Asia  Minor,  Gaul, 
Germany,  were  full  of  people,  but  they  greatly  diminished 
under  Roman  occupation.  Her  maxims  were  capable  of 
being  realized  with  facility  through  her  military  organiza- 
tion, particularly  that  of  the  legion.  In  some  nations 


CH.  VIII.]  INFLUENCES  OF  ROME.  251 

colonies  are  founded  for  commercial  purposes,  in  others 
for  getting  rid  of  an  excess  of  population :  the  Roman 
colony  implies  the  idea  of  a  garrison  and  an  active  military 
intent.  Each  legion  was,  in  fact,  so  constructed  as  to  be 
a  small  but  complete  army.  In  whatever  country  it  might 
be  encamped,  it  was  in  quick  communication  with  the 
head-quarters  at  Rome ;  and  this  not  metaphorically,  but 
materially,  as  was  shown  by  the  building  of  the  necessary 
military  roads.  The  idea  of  permanent  occupation,  which 
was  thus  implied,  did  not  admit  the  expediency  of  devas- 
tating a  country,  but,  on  the  contrary,  led  to  the 
encouragement  of  provincial  prosperity,  because  the 
greater  the  riches  the  greater  the  capacity  for  taxation. 
Such  principles  were  in  harmony  with  the  conditions  of 
solidity  and  security  of  the  Roman  power,  which  pro- 
verbially had  not  risen  in  a  single  day — was  not  the 
creation  of  a  single  fortunate  soldier,  but  represented  the 
settled  policy  of  many  centuries.  In  the  act  of  conquest 
Rome  was  inhuman ;  she  tried  to  strike  a  blow  that  there 
would  never  be  any  occasion  to  repeat ;  no  one  was  spared 
who  by  possibility  might  inconvenience  her;  but,  the 
catastrophe  once  over,  as  a  general  thing,  the  vanquished 
had  no  occasion  to  complain  of  her  rule.  Of  course,  in  tho 
shadow  of  public  justice,  private  wrong  and  oppression 
were  often  concealed.  Through  injustice  and  extortion,  her 
officers  accumulated  enormous  fortunes,  which  have  never 
since  been  equalled  in  Europe.  Sometimes  the  like  occurred 
in  times  of  public  violence ;  thus  Brutus  made  Asia  Minor 
pay  five  years'  tribute  at  once,  and  shortly  after  Antony 
compelled  it  to  do  it  again.  The  extent  to  which  recog- 
nized and  legitimate  exactions  were  carried  is  shown  by 
the  fact  that  upon  the  institution  of  the  empire  the  annual 
revenues  were  about  forty  millions  of  pounds  sterling. 

The  comparative  value  of  metals  in  Rome  is  a  significant 
political  indication.  Bullion  rapidly  increased  in  amount 
during  the  Carthaginian  wars.  At  the  opening  Valuft  of gold 
of  the  first  Punic  War  silver  and  copper  were  as  and  stlver- 
1  to  960  ;  at  the  second  Punic  War  the  ratio  had  fallen, 
and  was  1  to  160  ;  soon  after  there  was  another  fall,  and 
it  became  1  to  128.  The  republic  debased  the  coinage 
by  reducing  its  weight,  the  empire  by  alloying  it. 


252  THE  HISTORY  AND  PHILOSOPHICAL  [CH. 

The  science,  art,  and  political  condition  of  nations  aro 
often  illustrated  by  their  coinage.  An  interesting  view 
of  the  progress  of  Europe  might  be  obtained  from  a 
philosophical  study  of  its  numismatic  remains.  The 
simplicity  of  the  earlier  ages  is  indicated  by  the  pure  silver, 


Connexion  8UC^  as  *na^  co*ned  at  Crotona,  B.C.  600  —  that 
between  d  •  of  the  reign  of  Philip  of  Macedon  by  the  native 
Sjenandf  "nalloyed  gold.  A  gradual  decline  in  Roman 
political  prosperity  is  more  than  shadowed  forth  by  tho 

gradual  deterioration  of  its  money  ;  for,  as  evil 
times  befell  the  state,  the  emperors  were  compelled  to 
utter  a  false  coinage.  Thus,  under  Vespasian,  A.D.  69,  tho 
silver  money  contained  about  one  fourth  of  its  weight  of 
copper  ;  under  Antoninus  Pius,  A.D.  138,  more  than  one 
third  ;  under  Commodus,  A.D.  180,  nearly  one  half  ;  under 
Gordian,  A.D.  236,  there  was  added  to  the  silver  more  than 
twice  its  weight  of  copper.  Nay,  under  Gallienus,  a 
coinage  was  issued  of  copper,  tin  and  silver,  in  which 
the  first  two  metals  exceed  the  last  by  more  than  two 
hundred  times  its  weight.  It  shows  to  what  a  hopeless 
condition  the  state  had  come. 

The  Roman  demagogues,  as  is  the  instinct  of  their 
kind,  made  political  capital  by  attacking  industrial  capital. 
They  lowered  the  rate  of  interest,  prohibited  interest,  and 
often  attempted  the  abolition  of  debts. 

The  concentration  of  power  and  increase  of  immorality 
proceeded  with  an  equal  step.  In  its  earlier  ages,  the 
Roman  dominion  was  exercised  by  a  few  thousand  persons  ; 

then  it  passed  into  the   hands   of  some  score 

Incl(>scnb:il'lc     »        .-,.       x    ,,  .,  ,     .        j     ,, 

depravity  in  families  ;  then  it  was  sustained  ior  a  moment 
deci^nmn  ^y  individuals,  and  at  last  was  seized  by  one 
m;  m.  who  became  the  master  of  120  millions. 
As  the  process  went  on,  the  virtues  which  had  adorned 
the  earlier  times  disappeared,  and  in  the  end  were  replaced 
by  crimes  such  as  the  world  had  never  before  witnessed 
and  never  will  again.  An  evil  day  is  approaching  when 
it  becomes  recognized  in  a  community  that  the  only 
standard  of  social  distinction  is  wealth.  That  day  was 
soon  followed  in  Romo  by  its  unavoidable  consequence,  a 
government  founded  upon  two  domestic  elements,  corrup- 
tion and  terrorism.  No  language  can  describe  tho  state 


CH.  VII  I.  J  INFLUENCES  OF  ROME.  253 

of  that  capital  after  the  civil  wars.  The  accumulation  of 
power  and  wealth  gave  rise  to  a  universal  depravity. 
Law  ceased  to  be  of  any  value.  A  suitor  must  deposit  a 
bribe  before  a  trial  could  be  had.  The  social  fabric  was 
a  festering  mass  of  rottenness.  The  people  had  become  a 
populace ;  the  aristocracy  was  demoniac ;  the  city  was  a 
hell.  No  crime  that  the  annals  of  human  wickedness 
can  show  was  left  unperpetrated — remorseless  murders ; 
the  betrayal  of  parents,  husbands,  wives,  friends ;  poison- 
ing reduced  to  a  system  ;  adultery  degenerating 
into  incests,  and  crimes  that  cannot  be  written.  Of  the  women. 
Women  of  the  higher  class  were  so  lascivious,  and  abidance 

,  ,  ,,'  ,,  i  j         i  i        of  marriage. 

depraved,  and  dangerous,  that  men  could  not  be 
compelled  to  contract  matrimony  with  them ;  marriage 
was  displaced  by  concubinage ;  even  virgins  were  guilty 
of  inconceivable  immodesties ;  great  officers  of  state  and 
ladies  of  the  court,  of  promiscuous  bathings  and  naked  ex- 
hibitions. Jn  the  time  of  Caesar  it  had  become  necessary  for 
the  government  to  interfere,  and  actually  put  a  premium 
on  marriage.  He  gave  rewards  to  women  who  had  many 
children  ;  prohibited  those  who  were  under  forty-five  years 
of  age,  and  who  had  no  children,  from  wearing  jewels  and 
riding  in  litters,  hoping  by  such  social  disabilities  to 
correct  the  evil.  It  went  on  from  bad  to  worse,  so  that 
Augustus,  in  view  of  the  general  avoidance  of  legal 
marriage  and  resort  to  concubinage  with  slaves,  was 
compelled  to  impose  penalties  on  the  unmarried — to  enact 
that  they  should  not  inherit  by  will  except  from  relations. 
Not  that  the  Roman  women  refrained  from  the  gratifica- 
tion of  their  desires ;  their  depravity  impelled  them  to 
such  wicked  practices  Us  cannot  be  named  in  a  modern 
book.  They  actually  reckoned  the  years,  not  by  the 
consuls,  but  by  the  men  they  had  lived  with.  To  be 
childless,  and  therefore  without  the  natural  restraint  of  a 
family,  was  looked  upon  as  a  singular  felicity.  Plutarch 
correctly  touched  the  point  when  he  said  that  the  Romans 
married  to  be  heirs  and  not  to  have  heirs.  Of  offences  that 
do  not  rise  to  the  dignity  of  atrocity,  but  which  excite  our 
loathing,  such  as  gluttony  and  the  most  debauched  luxury, 
the  annals  of  the  times  furnish  disgusting  proofs.  It  was 
eaid,  "  They  eat  that  they  may  vomit,  and  vomit  that  thoy 


254  THE  HISTORY  AND  PHILOSOPHICAL  [03.  VIII. 

may  eat."  At  the  taking  of  Perusium,  three  hundred  of 
the  most  distinguished  citizens  were  solemnly  sacrificed  at 
the  altar  of  Divus  Julius  by  Octavian !  Are  these  the 
deeds  of  civilized  men,  or  the  riotings  of  cannibals  drunk 
with  blood  ? 

The  higher  classes  on  all  sides  exhibited  a  total  ex- 
Thewhoi-  tinction  of  moral  principle;  the  lower  were 
gystemispast  practical  atheists.  Who  can  peruse  the  annals 
of  the  emperors  without  being  shocked  at  the 
manner  in  which  men  died,  meeting  their  fate  with  tho 
obtuse  tranquillity  that  characterizes  beasts  ?  A  centurion 
with  a  private  mandate  appears,  and  forthwith  the  victim 
opens  his  veins  and  dies  in  a  warm  bath.  At  tho  best,  all 
that  was  done  was  to  strike  at  the  tyrant.  Men  despair- 
ingly acknowledged  that  the  system  itself  was  utterly 
past  cure. 

That  in  these  statements  I  do  not  exaggerate,  hear 
what  Tacitus  says :  "  The  holy  ceremonies  of  religion 
were  violated ;  adultery  reigning  without  control ;  tho 
adjacent  islands  filled  with  exiles ;  rocks  and  desert  places 
Testimony  of  stained  with  clandestine  murders,  and  Rome  it- 
Tacitus.  gejf  a  theatre  of  horrors,  where  nobility  of  descent 
and  splendour  of  fortune  .marked  men  out  for  destruction ; 
where -the  vigour  of  mind  that  aimed  at  civil  dignities, 
and  the  modesty  that  declined  them,  were  offences  with- 
out distinction ;  where  virtue  was  a  crime  that  led  to 
certain  ruin ;  where  the  guilt  of  informers  and  the  wages 
of  their  iniquity  were  alike  detestable ;  where  the  sacer- 
dotal order,  the  consular  dignity,  the  government  of 
provinces,  and  even  "the  cabinet  of  the  prince,  were  seized 
by  that  execrable  race  as  their  lawful  prey ;  where 
nothing  was  sacred,  nothing  safe  from  the  hand  of 
rapacity ;  where  slaves  were  suborned,  or  by  their  own 
malevolence  excited  against  their  masters ;  where  free- 
men betrayed  their  patrons,  and  he  who  had  lived  with- 
out an  enemy  died  by  the  treachery  of  a  friend." 

But,  though  these  were  the  consequences  of  the  con- 

Kfferts  in  the   centration  of  power  and  wealth  in  the  city  of 

prorinces.       Rome,  it  was  otherwise  in  the  expanse  of  tho 

'**'      empire.   The  effect  of  Roman  domination  was  tho 

cessation  of  all  tho  little  wars  that  had  heretofore  boea 


CH.  VIII.]  INFLUENCES   OF  ROME.  255 

waged  between  adjacent  peoples.  They  exchanged  inde- 
pendence for  peace.  Moreover,  and  this,  in  the  end,  was 
of  the  utmost  importance  to  them  all,  unrestricted  com- 
merce ensued,  direct  trade  arising  between  all  parts  of  the 
empire.  The  Mediterranean  nations  were  brought  closer 
to  each  other,  and  became  common  inheritors  of  such 
knowledge  as  was  then  in  the  world.  Arts,  sciences, 
improved  agriculture,  spread  among  them ;  the  most 
distant  countries  could  boast  of  noble  roads,  aqueducts, 
bridges,  and  great  works  of  engineering.  In  barbarous 
places,  the  legions  that  were  intended  as  garrisons  proved 
to  be  foci  of  civilization.  For  the  provinces,  even  the 
wickedness  of  Rome  was  not  without  some  good.  From 
one  quarter  corn  had  to  bo  brought ;  from  another, 
clothing ;  from  another,  luxuries ;  and  Italy  had  to  pay 
for  it  all  in  coin.  She  had  nothing  to  export  in  return. 
By  this  there  was  a  tendency  to  equalization  of  wealth 
in  all  parts  of  the  empire,  and  a  perpetual  movement 
of  money.  Nor  was  the  advantage  altogether  material ; 
there  were  conjoined  intellectual  results  of  no  intellectual 
little  value.  Superstition  and  tho  amazing  advancement, 
credulity  of  the  old  times  disappeared.  In  the  first  Punic 
War,  Africa  was  looked  >.pon  as  a  land  of  monsters;  it 
had  serpents  large  enough  to  stop  armies,  it  had  headless 
men.  Sicily  had  its  Cyclops,  giants,  enchantresses ;  golden 
apples  grew  in  Spain  ;  the  mouth  of  Hell  was  on  the  shores 
of  the  Euxine.  The  marches  of  the  legions  and  the  voyages 
of  merchants  made  all  these  phantasms  vanish. 

It   was  the  necessary  consequence  of  her  military  ag- 
grandizement that  the  ethnical  element  which 
really  constituted  Koine  should  expire.    A  small  anct^Ttiie 
nucleus  of  men  had  undertaken  to  conquer  the  K»man  etimi- 
Mediterranean  world,   and   had  succeeded.     In 
doing  this  they  had  diffused  themselves  over  an  immense 
geographical  surface,  and  necessarily  became  lost  in  the 
mass  with  which  they  mingled.      On  the  other  hand,  tho 
deterioration  of  Italy  was  insured  by  the   slave  system, 
and  the  ruin  of  Koine  was  accomplished  before  the  bar- 
barians touched  it.    Whoever  inquires  the  cause  of  the  fall 
of  the  Roman  empire  will  find  his  answer  in  ascertaining 
what,  had  become  of  the  Romans  -  - 


256  THE  HISTORY   AND  PHILOSOPHICAL  [en.  VIII. 

The  extinction  of  prodigies  and  superstitious  legends  was 
occasioned  by  increased  travel,  through  the  merging  of  many 
Komancon-  separate  nations  into  one  great  empire.  Intel- 
quc-st  pro-  lectual  communication  attends  material  commu- 
Uneoug0  nication.  The  spread  of  Roman  influence  around 
thought,  t^e  borders  of  the  Mediterranean  produced  a  ten- 
dency to  homogeneous  thought  eminently  dangerous  to  the 
many  forms  of  faith  professed  by  so  many  different  people. 

After  Tarquin  was  expelled  the  sacerdotal  class  became 
altogether  subordinate  to  the  military,  whose  whole  history 
shows  that  they  regarded  religion  as  a  mere  state  institu- 
tion, without  any  kind  of  philosophical  significance,  and 
chiefly  to  be  valued  for  the  control  it  furnished  over  vulgar 
minds.  It  presented  itself  to  them  in  the  light  of  a  branch 
of  industry,  from  which  profit  might  be  made  by  those 
who  practised  it.  They  thought  no  more  of  concerning  them- 
selves individually  about  it  than  in  taking  an  interest 
in  any  other  branch  of  lucrative  trade.  As  to  any  ex- 
amination of  its  intellectual  basis,  they  were  not  sophists, 
andrevoiu-  ^ut  soldiers,  blindly  following  the  prescribed 
tjonizesre-  institutions  of  their  country  with  as  little 
iea8'  question  as  its  military  commands.  For  these 
reasons,  throughout  the  time  of  the  republic,  and  also  under 
the  early  emperors,  there  never  was  much  reluctance  to 
the  domestication  of  any  kind  of  worship  in  Rome.  Indeed, 
the  gods  of  the  conquered  countries  were  established  there 
to  the  gratification  of  the  national  vanity.  From  this 
commingling  of  worship  in  the  city,  and  intercommunica- 
tion of  ideas  in  the  provinces,  the  most  important  events 
arose. 

For  it  very  soon  was  apparent  that  the  political  unity 
which  had  been  established  over  so  great  a  geographical 
surface  was  the  forerunner  of  intellectual,  and 
prepares  the  therefore  religious  unity.  Polytheism  became 
monotheism  Practically  inconsistent  with  the  Roman  empire, 
and  a  tendency  arose  for  the  introduction  of 
some  form  of  monotheism.  Apart  from  the  operations  of 
Reason,  it  is  clear  that  the  recognition  by  so  many  nations 
of  one  emperor  must  soon  be  followed  by  the  acknowledg- 
ment of  one  God.  There  is  a  disposition  to  uniformity 
among  people  who  are  associated  by  a  common  political 


CH.  VIII.]  INFLUENCES   OF  ROME.  257 

bond.  Moreover,  the  rivalries  of  a  hundred  priesthoods 
imparted  to  polytheism  an  intrinsic  weakness  ;  but  mono- 
theism implies  centralization,  an  organized  hierarchy,  and 
therefore  concentration  of  power.  The  different  interests 
and  collisions  of  multitudinous  forms  of  religion  sapped 
individual  faith ;  a  diffusion  of  practical  atheism,  manifested 
by  a  total  indifference  to  all  ceremonies,  except  so  far  as 
they  were  shows,  was  the  result,  the  whole  community 
falling  into  an  unbelieving  and  godless  state.  The  form 
of  superstition  through  which  the  national  mind  had  passed 
was  essentially  founded  upon  the  recognition  of  an  incessant 
intervention  of  many  divinities  determining  human  affairs  ; 
but  such  a  faith  became  extinct  by  degrees  among  tho 
educated.  How  was  it  possible  that  human  reason  should 
deal  otherwise  with  all  the  contradictions  and  absurdities 
of  a  thousand  indigenous  and  imported  deities,  each 
asserting  his  inconsistent  pretensions.  A  god  who  in  his 
native  grove  or  temple  has  been  paramount  and  un 
questioned,  sinks  into  insignificance  when  he  is  brought 
into  a  crowd  of  compeers.  In  this  respect  there  is  no 
difference  between  gods  and  men.  Great  cities  are  great 
levellers  of  both.  He  who  has  stood  forth  in  undue 
proportions  in  the  solitude  of  the  country,  sinks  out  of 
observation  in  the  solitude  of  a  crowd. 

The  most  superficial  statement  of  philosophy  among  the 
Romans,  if  philosophy  it  can  bo  called,  shows  us  how 
completely  religious  sentiment  was  effaced.  The  Roman  puno- 
presence  of  sceptical  thought  is  seen  in  the  B°Pby- 
explanations  of  Terentius  Varro,  B.C.  110,  that  the  an  thro- 
pomorphic  gods  are  to  be  received  as  mere  emblems  of  the 
forces  of  matter ;  and  the  general  tendency  of  the  times 
may  be  gathered  from  the  poem  of  Lucretius :  varro.  LU- 
his  recommendations  that  the  mind  should  bo  "etius. 
emancipated  from  the  fear  of  the  gods ;  his  arguments 
against  the  immortality  of  the  soul;  his  setting  forth 
Nature  as  the  only  God  to  be  worshipped.  In  Cicero 
we  see  how  feeble  and  wavering  a  guide  to  life  in  a 
period  of  trouble  philosophy  had  become,  and  how  one 
who  wished  to  stand  in  the  attitude  of  chief  thinker  of  his 
times  was  no  more  than  a  servile  copyist  of  Grecian 
predecessors,  giving  to  his  works  not  an  air  of  masculino 


258  THE   HISTORY   AND  PHILOSOPHICAL  CH.  VIII. 

and  independent  thought,  "but  aiming  at  present  effect 
rather  than  a  solid  durability ;  for  Cicero  addresses 
himself  more  to  the  public  than  to  philosophers, 
exhibiting  herein  his  professional  tendency  as  an  advocate. 
Under  a  thin  veil  he  hides  an  undisguised  scepticism,  and, 
with  the  instinct  of  a  placeman,  leans  rather  to  the  in^esti- 
gation  of  public  concerns  than  to  the  profound  and  abstract 
topics  of  philosophy.  As  is  the  case  with  superficial  men,  ho 
sees  no  dift'erence  between  the  speculative  and  the  exact, 
confusing  them  together.  He  feels  that  it  is  inexpedient  to 
communicate  truth  publicly,  especially  that  of  a  religious 
kind.  Doubtless  herein  we  shall  agree  when  we  find  that 
he  believes  God  to  be  nothing  more  than  the  soul  of  the 
world ;  discoverr  many  serious  objections  to  the  doctrine 
of  Providence ;  insinuates  that  the  gods  are  only  poetical 
creations ;  is  uncertain  whether  the  soul  be  immortal,  but 
is  clear  that  popular  doctrine  of  punishment  in  the  world 
to  come  is  only  an  idle  fable. 

It  was  the  attribute  of  the  Romans  to  impress  upon 
every  thing  a  practical  character.  In  their  philosophy  wo 
quintiwScx-  continually  see  this  displayed,  along  with  a 
tius.  Seneca,  striking  inferiority  in  original  thought.  Quintus 
Sextius  admonishes  us  to  pursue  a  virtuous  life,  and,  as  an 
aid  thereto,  enjoins  an  abstinence  from  meat.  In  this 
opinion  many  of  the  Cynical  school  acquiesced,  and  some 
it  is  said,  even  joined  the  Brahmans.  In  the  troublous 
times  of  the  first  Caesars,  men  had  occasion  to  derive  all  the 
support  they  could  from  philosophy ;  there  was  no  religion 
to  sustain  them.  Among  the  Stoics  there  were  some,  as 
Seneca,  to  whom  we  can  look  back  with  pleasure.  Through 
his  writings  he  exercised  a  considerable  influence  on 
subsequent  ages,  though,  when  we  attentively  read  his 
works,  wo  must  attribute  this  not  so  much  to  their 
intrinsic  value  as  to  their  happening  to  coincide  with  the 
prevalent  tone  of  religious  thought.  He  enforces  the 
necessity  of  a  cultivation  of  good  morals,  and  yet  he  writes 
against  the  religion  of  his  country,  its  observances,  and 
requirements.  Of  a  far  higher  grade  was  Epictetus,  at 
Epictetus.  once  a  slave  and  a  philosopher,  though  scar  coin 
Antoninus.  to  be  classed  as  a  true  Stoic.  He  considers  may 
as  a  mere  spectator  of  God  and  his  works,  and  teaches  that 


CH.  VIII. j  INFLUENCES  OF   ROME.  259 

every  one  who  can  no  longer  bear  the  miseries  of  life  is 
upon  just  deliberation,  and  a  conscientious  belief  that  the 
gods  will  not  disapprove,  free  to  commit  suicide.  His 
maxim  is  that  all  have  a  part  to  play,  and  he  has  done 
•well  who  has  done  his  best — that  he  must  look  to  conscience 
as  his  guide.  If  Seneca  said  that  time  alone  is  our  absolute 
and  only  possession,  and  that  nothing  else  belongs  to  man, 
Epictetus  taught  that  his  thoughts  are  all  that  man  has 
any  power  over,  every  thing  else  being  beyond  his  control. 
M.  Aurelius  Antoninus,  the  emperor,  did  not  hesitate  to 
acknowledge  his  thankfulness  to  Epictetus,  the  slave,  in 
his  attempt  to  guide  his  life  according  to  the  principles  of 
the  Stoics.  He  recommends  every  man  to  preserve  his 
daemon  free  from  sin,  and  prefers  religious  devotions  to 
the  researches  of  physics,  in  this  departing  to  some  extent 
from  the  original  doctrines  of  the  sect ;  but  the  evil  times 
on  which  men  had  fallen  led  them  to  seek  support  in 
religious  consolations  rather  than  in  philosophi-  Maximus 
cal  inquiries.  In  Maximus  Tyrius,  A.D.  14(3,  we  Tyrius- 
discover  a  corresponding  sentiment,  enveloped,  it  is  true, 
in  an  air  of  Platonism,  and  countenancing  an  impression 
that  image  worship  and  sanctuaries  are  unnecessary  for 
those  who  have  a  lively  remembrance  of  the  view  they 
once  enjoyed  of  the  divine,  though  excellent  for  the  vulgar, 
who  have  forgotten  their  past.  Alexander  of  Alexander  of 
Aphrodisias  exhibits  the  tendency,  which  was  Aphrwiuias. 
becoming  very  prevalent,  to  combine  Plato  and  Aristotle. 
He  treats  upon  Providence,  both  absolute  and  contingent ; 
considers  its  bearings  upon  religion,  and  shows  a  disposition 
to  cultivate  the  pious  feelings  of  the  age. 

Galen,  the  physician,  asserts  that  experience  is  the  only 
source  of  knowledge ;  lays  great  stress  on  the  cul-  Ancient 
tare  of  mathematics  and  logic,  observing  that  he  i^ys"^^ 
himself  should  have  been  a  Pyrrhonist  had  it  n  jt  been  for 
geometry.  In  the  ideological  doctrine  of  physiology  he 
considers  that  the  foundations  of  a  true  theology  must  be 
laid.  The  physicians  of  the  times  exerted  no  little  influence 
on  the  promotion  of  such  views;  for  the  most  part  they 
embraced  the  Pantheistic  doctrine.  As  one  of  them,  Sextus 
Empiricus  may  be  mentioned ;  his  works,  still  remaining, 
indicate  to  us  the  tendency  of  this  school  to  materialism. 


260  THE  HISTORY   AND   PHILOSOPHICAL  [CH.  VIII. 

Such  was  the  tone  of  thought  among  the  cultivated 
.Romans ;  and  to  this  philosophical  atheism  among  them 
was  added  an  atheism  of  indifference  among  the  vulgar. 
But,  since  man  is  so  constituted  that  he  cannot  live  for 

any  length  of  time  without  a  form  of  worship,  it 
fu'ctanPa-Cal  is  evident  that  there  was  great  danger,  when- 
mongtheedu-  ever  events  should  be  ripe  for  the  appearance  of 

some  monotheistic  idea,  that  it  might  come  in 
a  base  aspect.  At  a  much  later  period  than  that  we  are 
here  considering,  one  of  the  emperors  expressed  himself  to 
the  effect  that  it  would  be  necessary  to  give  liberty  for  the 
exercise  of  a  sound  philosophy  among  the  higher  classes, 
and  provide  a  gorgeous  ceremonial  for  the  lower ;  he  saw 
how  difficult  it  is,  by  mere  statesmanship  to  co-ordinate 
two  such  requirements,  in  their  very  nature  contradictory. 
Though  polytheism  had  lost  all  intellectual  strength,  the 
nations  who  had  so  recently  parted  with  it  could  not 
be  expected  to  have  ceased  from  all  disposition  to  an 
animalization  of  religion  and  corporealization  of  God.  In 
a  certain  sense  the  emperor  was  only  a  more  remote  and 
more  majestic  form  of  the  conquered  and  vanished  kings, 
but,  like  them,  he  was  a  man.  There  was  danger  that  the 
theological  system,  thus  changing  with  the  political,  would 
yield  only  expanded  anthropomorphic  conceptions. 

History  perpetually  demonstrates  that  nations  cannot 
be  permanently  modified  except  by  principles  or  actions 
conspiring  with  their  existing  tendency.  Violence  perpe- 
trated upon  them  may  pass  away,  leaving,  perhaps  in  a 
few  generations,  no  vestige  of  itself.  Even  Victory  is 
conquered  by  Time.  Profound  changes  only  ensue  when 
Principle,  to  the  operating  force  is  in  unison  with  the  temper 
be  effective  of  the  age.  International  peace  among  so  many 

must  coincide  ,  .  „ .  ,         J3  .     J 

with  existing  people  once  an  conflict — peace  under  the  auspices 
tendencies.  of  a  gj.^  overshadowing  power ;  the  unity  of 
sentiment  and  brotherhood  of  feeling  fast  finding  its  way 
around  the  Mediterranean  shores ;  the  interests  of  a  vast 
growing  commerce,  unfettered  through  the  absorption  of 
so  many  little  kingdoms  into  one  great  republic,  were 
silently  bringing  things  to  a  condition  that  political  force 
could  be  given  to  any  religious  dogma  founded  upon 
sentiments  of  mutual  regard  and  interest.  Nor  could  it 


CH.  VIII.]  INFLUENCES  OF  ROME.  261 

be  otherwise  than  that  among  the  great  soldiers  of  those 
times  one  would  at  last  arise  whose  practical  intellect 
would  discover  the  personal  advantages  that  must  accrue 
from  putting  himself  in  relation  with  the  universally 
prevailing  idea.  How  could  he  better  find  adherents  from 
the  centre  to  the  remotest  corner  of  the  empire  ?  And, 
even  if  his  own  personal  intellectual  state  should  disable 
him  from  accepting  in  its  fulness  the  special  form  in  which 
the  idea  had  become  embodied,  could  there  be  any  doubt, 
if  he  received  it,  and  was  true  to  it  as  a  politician,  though 
he  might  decline  it  as  a  man,  of  the  immense  power  it 
would  yield  him  in  return — a  power  sufficient,  if  the 
metropolis  should  resist,  or  be  otherwise  unsuited  to  his 
designs,  to  enable  him  to  found  a  rival  to  her  in  a  more 
congenial  place,  and  leave  her  to  herself,  "  the  skeleton  of 
so  much  glory  and  of  so  much  guilt." 

Thus,  after  the  event,  we  can  plainly  see  that  the  final 
blow  to  Polytheism  was  the  suppression  of  the  ancient 
independent  nationalities  around  the  Mediterranean  Sea ; 
and  that,  in  like  manner,  Monotheism  was  the  The  coming 
result  of  the  establishment  of  an  imperial  govern-  ^°"^eism 
ment  in  Eome.   But  the  great  statesmen  of  those  bounded  by 
times,  who  were  at  the  general  point  of  view,  Rom!,™^.0* 
must  have  foreseen  that,  in  whatever  form  the  fiance, 
expected  change  came,  its  limits  of  definition  would  in- 
evitably be  those  of  the  empire  itself,  and  that  wherever 
the  language  of  Rome  was  understood  the  religion  of  Rome 
would  prevail.    In  the  course  of  ages,  an  expansion  beyond 
those  limits  might  ensue  wherever  the  state  of  things  was 
congenial.     On  the  south,  beyond  the  mere  verge  of  Africa, 
nothing  was  to  be  hoped  for — it  is  the  country  in  which 
man  lives  in  degradation  and  is  happy.   On  the  east  there 
were  great  unsubdued  and  untouched  monarchies,  having 
their  own  types  of  civilization,  and  experiencing  no  want 
in    a    religious  respect.     But  on   the  north  there  were 
nations  who,  though  they  were  plunged  in  hideous  bar- 
barism,  filthy  in   an   equal   degree   in   body  and   mind, 
polygamists,   idolaters,   drunkards   out  of  their  enemies' 
skulls,   were  yet  capable  of  an  illustrious  career.     For 
these  there  was  a  glorious  participation  in  store. 

Except  the  death  of  a  nation,  there  is  no  event  in  human, 


262  THE    HISTORY    AND   PHILOSOPHICAL  [CH.  VIII. 

history  more  profoundly  solemn  than  the  passing  away  of 
an  ancient  religion,  though  religious  ideas  are  transitory, 
and  creeds  succeed  one  another  with  a  periodicity  de- 
termined by  the  law  of  continuous  variation  of  human 
thought.  The  intellectual  epoch  at  which  we  have  now 
arrived  has  for  its  essential  characteristic  such  a  change — 
new  ideas  ^ie  abandonment  of  a  time-honoured  but  obsolete 
coalesce  with  system,  the  acceptance  of  a  new  and  living  one ; 
and,  in  the  incipient  stages,  opinion  succeeding 
opinion  in  a  well-marked  way,  until  at  length,  after  a  few 
centuries  of  fusion  and  solution,  there  crystallized  on  the 
remnant  of  Roman  power,  as  on  a  nucleus,  a  definite  form, 
which,  slowly  modifying  itself  into  the  Papacy,  served 
the  purposes  of  Europe  for  more  than  a  thousand  years 
throughout  its  age  of  Faith. 

In  this  abandonment,  the  personal  conduct  of  the  edu- 
cated classes  very  powerfully  assisted.  They  outwardly 
conformed  to  the  ceremonial  of  the  times,  reserving  their 
higher  doctrines  to  themselves,  as  something  beyond 
vulgar  comprehension.  Considering  themselves  as  an  in- 
tellectual aristocracy,  they  stood  aloof,  and,  with 
Romaifeciu- "  an  ill-concealed  smile,  consented  to  the  trans- 
catod  men  at  parent  folly  around  them.  It  had  come  to  an 
evil  state  when  authors  like  Folybius  and  Strabo 
apologized  to  their  compeers  for  the  traditions  and  legends 
they  ostensibly  accepted,  on  the  ground  that  it  is  incon- 
venient and  needless  to  give  popular  offence,  and  that 
those  who  are  children  in  understanding  must,  like  those 
who  are  children  in  age,  be  kept  in  order  by  bugbears.  It 
had  come  to  an  evil  state  when  the  awful  ceremonial  of 
former  times  had  degenerated  into  a  pageant,  played  off  by 
an  infidel  priesthood  and  unbelieving  aristocracy ;  when 
oracles  were  becoming  mute,  because  they  could  no  longer 
withstand  the  sly  wit  of  the  initiated  ;  when  the  miracles 
of  the  ancients  were  regarded  as  mere  lies,  and  of  contem- 
poraries as  feats  of  legerdemain.  It  had  come  to  an  evil 
pass  when  even  statesmen  received  it  as  a  maxim  that 
when  the  people  have  advanced  in  intellectual  culture  to  a 
certain  point,  the  sacerdotal  class  must  either  deceive  them 
or  oppress  them,  if  it  means  to  keep  its  power. 

In  Home,  at   the  time  of  Augustus,   the   intellectual 


CH.  VIII.]  INFLUENCES  OF  ROME.  263 

classes — philosophers  and  statesmen  —  had  completely 
emerged  from  the  ancient  modes  of  thought.  To  them, 
the  national  legends,  so  jealously  guarded  by  Religious  con- 
the  populace,  had  become  mere  fictions.  The  ditionorthe 

.      *.  , .  <•  T>i          ct    i     •     i        .LI  j    intellectual 

miraculous  conception  ot  Khea  bylvia  by  the  god  classes  in 
Mars,  an  event  from  which  their  ancestors  had  Rome- 
deduced  with  pride  the  celestial  origin  of  the  founder  of 
their  city,  had  dwindled  into  a  myth ;  as  a  source  of  actual 
reliance  and  trust,  the  intercession  of  Venus,  that  emblem 
of  female  loveliness,  with  the  father  of  the  gods  in  behalf 
of  her  human  favourites,  was  abandoned ;  the  Sibylline 
books,  once  believed  to  contain  all  that  was  necessary  for 
the  prosperity  of  the  republic,  were  suspected  of  an  origin 
more  sinister  than  celestial ;  nor  were  insinuations  wanting 
that  from  time  to  time  they  had  been  tampered  with  to 
suit  the  expediency  of  passing  interests,  or  even  that  the 
true  ones  were  lost  and  forgeries  put  in  their  stead.  The 
Greek  mythology  was  to  them,  as  it  is  to  us,  an  object  of 
reverence,  not  because  of  any  inherent  truth,  but  because 
of  the  exquisite  embodiments  it  can  yield  in  poetry,  in 
painting,  in  marble.  The  existence  of  those  illustrious  men 
who,  on  account  of  their  useful  lives  or  excellent  example, 
had,  by  the  pious  ages  of  old,  been  sanctified  or  even 
deified,  was  denied,  or,  if  admitted,  they  were  regarded  as 
the/  exaggerations  of  dark  and  barbarous  times.  It  was 
thus  with  ^Esculaprus,  Bacchus,  and  Hercules.  And  as  to 
the  various  forms  of  worship,  the  multitude  of  sects  into 
which  the  pagan  nations  were  broken  up  oifered  themselves 
as  a  spectacle  of  imbecile  and  inconsistent  devotion  alto- 
gether unworthy  of  attention,  except  so  far  as  they  might 
be  of  use  to  the  interests  of  the  state. 

Such  was  the  position  of  things  among  the  educated. 
In  one  sense  they  had  passed  into  liberty,  in  another  they 
were  in  bondage.     Their  indisposition  to  encounter  those 
inflictions  with  which  their  illiterate  contem-  Ttwir  irreso- 
poraries  might  visit  them  may  seem  to  us  sur-  lution. 
prizing  :  they  acted  as  if  they  thought  that  the  public  was 
a  wild  beast  that  would  bite  if  awakened  too  abruptly 
from   its   dream  ;  but   their  pusillanimity,  at  the  most, 
could  only  postpone  for  a  little  an  inevitable  day.     The 
ignorant  classes,  whom  they  had  so  much  feared,  awoke 


264  THE  HISTORY   AND  PHILOSOPHICAL  [CH.  VHL 

in  duo  season  spontaneously,  and  saw  in  the  clear  light 
how  matters  stood. 

Of  the  Roman  emperors  there  were  some  whose  intel- 
lectual endowments  were  of  the  highest  kind  ;  yet,  though 
it  must  have  been  plain  to  them,  as  to  all  who  turned 
their  attention  to  the  matter,  in  what  direction  society 
was  drifting,  they  let  things  take  their  course,  and  no  one 
lifted  a  finger  to  guide.  It  may  be  said  that  the 
affairs\othe  genius  of  Rome  manifested  itself  rather  in  phy- 
sical  than  in  intellectual  operations  ;  but  in  her 
best  days  it  was  never  the  genius  of  Rome  to 
abandon  great  events  to  freedmen,  eunuchs,  and  slaves. 
By  such  it  was  that  the  ancien*  gods  were  politically  cast 
aside,  while  the  government  was  speciously  yielding  a 
simulated  obedience  to  them,  and  hence  it  was  not  at  all 
surprizing  that,  soon  after  the  introduction  of  Christianity, 
its  pure  doctrines  were  debased  by  a  commingling  with 
ceremonies  of  the  departing  creed.  It  was  not  to  be 
expected  that  the  popular  mind  could  spontaneously 
extricate  itself  from  the  vicious  circle  in  which  it  was 
involved.  Nothing  but  philosophy  was  competent  to 
deliver  it,  and  philosophy  failed  of  its  duty  at  the  critical 
moment.  The  classical  scholar  need  scarcely  express  his 
and  conse-  surprize  that  the  Ferjae  Augusti  were  continued 
quent  debase-  jn  the  Church  as  the  Festival  St.  Petri  in 

ment  of  Chris-       •          T         ji     .  .• 

nity  in        vmcuhs  ;  that  even  to  our  own  times  an  image 


Rome.  of  the  h0iy  Virgin  was  carried  to  the  river  in  the 

same  manner  as  in  the  old  times  was  that  of  Cybele,  and 
that  many  pagan  rites  still  continue  to  be  observed  in 
Rome.  Had  it  been  in  such  incidental  particulars  only 
that  the  vestiges  of  paganism  were  preserved,  the  thing 
would  have  been  of  little  moment  ;  but,  as  all  who  have 
examined  the  subject  very  well  know,  the  evil  was  far  more 
general,  far  more  profound.  When  it  was  announced 
to  the  Ephesians  that  the  Council  of  that  place,  headed  by 
Cyril,  had  decreed  that  the  Virgin  should  be  called  "  the 
Mother  of  God,"  with  tears  of  joy  they  embraced  the  knees 
of  their  bishop  ;  it  was  the  old  instinct  peeping  out  ;  their 
ancestors  would  have  done  the  same  for  Diana.  If  Trajan, 
after  ten  centuries,  could  have  revisited  Rome,  he  would, 
without  difficulty,  have  recognized  tho  drama,  though  the 


CH.  VIII.]  INFLUENCES  OF   ROME.  265 

actors  and  scenery  had  all  changed ;  he  would  have  re- 
flected how  great  a  mistake  had  been  committed  in  the 
legislation  of  his  reign,  and  how  much  better  it  is,  when 
the  intellectual  basis  of  a  religion  is  gone,  for  a  wise 
government  to  abstain  from  all  compulsion  in  behalf  of 
what  has  become  untenable,  and  to  throw  itself  into  the 
new  movement  so  as  to  shape  the  career  by  assuming  the 
lead.  Philosophy  is  useless  when  misapplied  in  support 
of  things  which  common  sense  has  begun  to  reject ;  she 
shares  in  the  discredit  which  is  attaching  to  them.  The 
opportunity  of  rendering  herself  of  service  to  humanity 
once  lost,  ages  may  elapse  before  it  occurs  again.  Igno- 
rance and  low  interests  seize  the  moment,  and  fasten  a 
burden  on  man  which  the  struggles  of  a  thousand  years 
may  not  suffice  to  cast  off.  Of  all  the  duties  of  an 
enlightened  government,  this  of  allying  itself  with  Philo- 
sophy in  the  critical  moment  in  which  society  is  passing 
through  so  serious  a  metamorphosis  of  its  opinions  as  is 
involved  in  the  casting  off  of  its  ancient  investiture  of 
Faith,  and  its  assumption  of  a  new  one,  is  the  most  im- 
portant, for  it  stands  connected  with,  things  that  outlast 
all  temporal  concerns. 
VOL.  I.— 13 


CHAPTER  IX. 
THE  EUROPEAN  AGE  OF  INQUIRY. 

ma  PROGRESSIVE  VARIATION  OF  OPINIONS  CLOSED  BY  THE  INSTITUTION 

OF  COUNCILS  AND   THE   CONCENTRATION   OF   POWER   IN   A   PONTIFF. 

RISE,    EARLY     VARIATIONS,    CONFLICTS,    AND    FINAL    ESTABLISHMENT     OP 

CHRISTIANITY. 

Rise  of  Christianity. — Distinguished  from  ecclesiastical  Organization. — 
It  is  demanded  by  the  deplorable  Condition  of  the  Empire. — Its  brief 
Conflict  with  Paganism. — Character  of  its-  first  Organization. — 
Variations  of  Thought  and  Rise  of  Sects:  their  essential  Difference  in 
the  East  and  West. — The  three  primitive  Forms  of  Christianity :  the 
Judaic  Form,  its  End — the  Gnostic  Form,  its  End — the  African 
Form,  continues. 

Spread  of  Christianity  from  Syria. — Its  Antagonism  to  Imperialism  ', 
their  Conflicts. — Position  of  Affairs  under  Diocletian. — The  Policy  of 
Constantine. — He  avails  himself  of  the  Christian  Party,  and  through  it 
attains  suf>reme  Power. — His  personal  Relations  to  it. 

TJie  Trinitarian  Controversy. — Story  of  Arius. — The  Council  of  Nicea. 

The  Progress  of  the  Bishop  of  Rome  to  Supremacy.  —  The  Roman 
Church ;  it*  primitive  subordinate  Position. — Causes  of  its  increasing 
Wealth,  Influence,  and  Corruptions.  —  Stages  of  its  Advancement 
through  the  Pelagian,  Nestorian,  and  Eutychian  Disputes. — Rivalry 
of  the  Bishops  of  Constantinople,  Alexandria,  and  Rome. 

Necessity  of  a  Pontiff  in  the  West  and  ecclesiastical  Councils  in  the  East. 
— Nature  of  those  Councils  and  of  pontifical  Power. 

The  Period  closes  at  the  Capture  and  Sack  of  Rome  by  Alaric. — Defence 
of  that  Event  by  St.  Augustine. — Criticism  on  his  Writings. 

Cluiracter  of  the  Progress  of  Thought  through  this  Period. — Destiny  of 
the  three  gr&tt  Bisliops. 

FHOM   the   decay    of    Polytheism    and    the    decline     of 
subject  of  the  philosophy,    from   the   moral   and   social    dis- 
organization of  the  Roman  empire,  I  have  now 
to  turn  to  the  most  important  of  all  events,  the  rise    i>f 


CH.  IX.]  THE  EUROPEAN  AGE  OF  INQUIRY.  267 

Christianity.  I  have  to  show  how  a  variation  of  opinion 
proceeded  and  reached  its  culmination  ;  how  it  was  closed 
by  the  establishment  of  a  criterion  of  truth,  under  the  form 
of  ecclesiastical  councils,  and  a  system  developed  which 
supplied  the  intellectual  wants  of  Europe  for  nearly 
a  thousand  years. 

The  reader,  to  whom  I  have  thus  offered  a  representa- 
tion of  the  state  of  Roman  affairs,  must  now  prepare  to 
look  at  the  consequences  thereof.  Together  we  must 
trace  out  the  progress  of  Christianity,  examine  introduction 
the  adaptation  of  its  cardinal  principles  to  the  to  the  study  of 
wants  of  the  empire,  and  the  variations  it  Cl 
exhibited — a  task  supremely  difficult,  for  even  sincerity 
and  truth  will  sometimes  offend.  For  my  part,  it  is  my 
intention  to  speak  with  veneration  on  this  great  topic,  and 
yet  with  liberty,  for  freedom  of  thought  and  expression  is 
to  me  the  first  of  all  earthly  things. 

But,  that  I  may  not  be  misunderstood,  I  here,  at  the 
outset,  emphatically  distinguish  between  Chris-  Digtinction 
tianity   and   ecclesiastical   organizations.     The  between 
former  is  the  gift  of  God ;  the  latter  are  the  and'SuL 
product    of    human    exigencies    and    human  tjcaiorganiza- 
invention,  and  therefore  open  to  criticism,  or,    10D8< 
if  need  be,  to  condemnation. 

From  the  condition  of  the  Roman  empire  may  be 
indicated  the  principles  of  any  new  system  adapted  to  its 
amelioration.  In  the  reign  of  Augustus,  Morai6tateof 
violence  paused  only  because  it  had  finished  its  the  world  at 
work.  Faith  was  dead;  morality  had  disap-  l 
peared.  Around  the  shores  of  the  Mediterranean  the 
conquered  nations  looked  at  one  another — partakers  of  a 
common  misfortune,  associates  in  a  common  lot.  Not  one 
of  them  had  found  a  god  to  help  her  in  her  day  of  need. 
Europe,  Asia,  and  Africa  were  tranquil,  but  it  was  the 
silence  of  despair. 

Koine  never  considered  man  as  an  individual,  but  only 
as  a  thing.     Her  way  to  political  greatness  was  Unpltying 
pursued  utterly  regardless  of  human  suffering,  tyranny  of 
If  advantages  accrued  to  the  conquered  under  Kome- 
her  dominion,  they  arose  altogether  from  incident,  and 
never  from  her  purposed  intent.     She  was  no  self-conscious, 


268  THE  EUROPEAN  AGE  OF   INQUIRY.  [CH.  IX. 

deliberate  civilizer.  Conquest  and  rapine,  the  uniform 
aim  of  her  actions,  never  permitted  her,  even  at  her 
utmost  intellectual  development,  to  comprehend  the  equal 
rights  of  all  men  in  the  eye  of  the  law.  Unpitying  in 
her  stem  policy,  few  were  the  occasions  when,  for  high 
state  reasons,  she  stayed  her  uplifted  hand.  She  might 
in  the  wantonness  of  her  power,  stoop  to  mercy ;  she  never 
rose  to  benevolence. 

When  Syria  was  paying  one  third  of  its  annual  produce 
in  taxes,  is  it  surprising  that  the  Jewish  peasant  sighed 
for  a  deliverer,  and  eagerly  listened  to  the  traditions  of 
Prepares  the  his  nation  that  a  temporal  Messiah,  "a  king 
way  for  the  of  the  Jews  "  would  soon  come  ?  When  there 
theequaiity0  was  announced  the  equality  of  all  men  before 
or  ail  men.  God,  "  who  maketh  his  sun  to  shine  on  the 
good  and  the  evil,  and  sendeth  his  rain  on  the  just  and 
the  unjust,"  is  it  surprising  that  men  looked  for  equal 
rights  before  the  law?  Universal  equality  means  uni- 
versal benevolence ;  it  substitutes  for  the  impersonal  and 
easily-eluded  commands  of  the  state  the  dictates  of  an 
ever-present  conscience ;  it  accepts  the  injunction,  "  Do 
unto  others  as  you  would  they  should  do  to  you." 

In  the  spread  of  a  doctrine  two  things  are  concerned — 
its  own  intrinsic  nature,  and  the  condition  of  him  on 
whom  it  is  intended  to  act.  The  spread  of  Christianity  is 
Attitude  of  Dot  difficult  to  be  understood.  Its  antagonist, 
Paganism.  Paganism,  presented  inherent  weakness,  infi- 
delity, and  a  cheerless  prospect ;  a  system,  if  that  can  be 
called  so,  which  had  no  ruling  idea,  no  principles,  no 
organization ;  caring  nothing  for  proselytes ;  its  rival 
pontiffs  devoted  to  many  gods,  but  forming  no  political 
combination  ;  occupying  themselves  with  directing  public 
worship  and  foretelling  future  events,  but  not  interfering 
in  domestic  life ;  giving  itself  no  concern  for  the  lowly 
and  unfortunate ;  not  recognizing,  or,  at  the  best,  doubt- 
fully admitting  a  future  life;  limiting  the  hopes  and 
destiny  of  man  to  this  world;  teaching  that  temporal 
prosperity  may  be  selfishly  gained  at  any  cost,  and  looking 
to  suicide  as  the  relief  cf  the  brave  from  misfortune. 

On  the  other  side  was  Christianity,  with  its  enthu- 
siasm and  burning  faith;  its  rewards  in  this  life,  and 


CH.  K.]  THE  EUROPEAN  AGE  OF   INQUIRY.  269 

everlasting  happiness  or  damnation  in  the  next ;  the 
precise  doctrines  it  by  degrees  gathered  of  sin,  re- 
pentance, pardon ;  the  efficacy  of  the  blood  of  the  Son  of 
God ;  its  proselytizing  spirit ;  its  vivid  dogmas  Attitude  of 
of  a  resurrection  from  the  dead,  the  approach-  Christianity. 
ing  end  of  the  world,  the  judgment-day.  Above  all,  in 
a  worldly  point  of  view,  the  incomparable  organization  it 
soon  attained,  and  its  preaching  in  season  and  out  of 
season.  To  the  needy  Christian  the  charities  of  the 
faithful  were  freely  given ;  to  the  desolate,  sympathy. 
In  every  congregation  there  were  prayers  to  God  that  he 
would  listen  to  the  sighing  of  the  prisoner  and  captive, 
and  have  mercy  on  those  who  were  ready  to  die.  For  the 
slave  and  his  master  there  was  one  law  and  one  hope,  one 
baptism,  one  Saviour,  one  Judge.  In  times  of  domestic 
bereavement  the  Christian  slave  doubtless  often  consoled 
his  pagan  mistress  with  the  suggestion  that  our  present 
separations  are  only  for  a  little  while,  and  revealed  to  her 
willing  ear  that  there  is  another  world — a  land  in  which 
we  rejoin  our  dead.  How  is  it  possible  to  arrest  the 
spread  of  a  faith  which  can  make  the  broken  heart  leap 
with  joy  ? 

At  its  first  organization  Christianity  embodied  itself  in 
a  form  of  communism,  the  merging  of  the  property  of  the 
disciples  into  a  common  stock,  from  which  the  necessary 
provision  for  the  needy  was  made.  Such  a  its  first 
system,  carried  out  rigorously,  is,  however,  organization. 
only  suited  to  small  numbers  and  a  brief  period.  In  its 
very  nature  it  is  impracticable  on  a  great  scale. 
Scarcely  had  it  been  resorted  to  before  such  troubles  as 
that  connected  with  the  question  of  the  Hebrew  and 
Greek  widows  showed  that  it  must  be  modified.  By  this 
relief  or  maintenance  out  of  the  funds  of  the  Church,  the 
spread  of  the  faith  among  the  humbler  classes  was  greatly 
facilitated.  In  warm  climates,  where  the  necessities  ot 
life  are  small,  an  apparently  insignificant  sum  will 
accomplish  much  in  this  way.  But,  as  wealth  accumu- 
lated, besides  this  inducement  for  the  poor,  there  were 
temptations  for  the  ambitious :  luxurious  appointments 
and  a  splendid  maintenance,  the  ecclesiastical  dignitaries 
becoming  more  than  rivals  to  those  of  the  stata 


270  THE  EUROPEAN  AGE  OF  INQUIRY.  \CH.  IX. 

From  the  modification  which  the  primitive  organization 
thus  underwent,  we  may  draw  the  instructive  conclusion 
that  the  special  forms  of  embodiment  which  the  Christian 
ai  principle  from  time  to  time  has  assumed,  and 
sectarian  of  which  many  might  be  mentioned,  wore,  in 
divergences,  jggji^  of  oniy  secondary  importance.  The 
sects  of  the  early  ages  have  so  totally  died  away  that  wo 
hardly  recall  the  meaning  of  their  names,  or  determine 
their  essential  dogmas.  From  fasting,  penance,  and  the 
gift  of  money,  things  which  are  of  precise  measurement, 
and  therefore  well  suited  to  intellectual  infancy,  there 
may  be  perceived  an  advancing  orthodoxy  up  to  tho 
highest  metaphysical  ideas.  Yet  it  must  not  be  supposed 
that  new  observances  and  doctrines,  as  they  emerged, 
were  the  disconnected  inventions  of  ambitious  men.  If 
rightly  considered,  they  are,  in  the  aggregate,  the 
product  of  the  uniform  progression  of  human  opinions. 

Authors  who  have  treated  of  the  sects  of  earlier  times 
will  point  out  to  tho  curious  reader  how,  in  the  begin- 
Early  variation  ning,  the  Church  was  agitated  by  a  lingering 
of  opinions,  attachment  to  the  Hebrew  rites,  and  with 
difficulty  tore  itself  away  from  Judaism,  which  for  the 
first  ten  years  was  paramount  in  it ;  how  then,  for 
several  centuries,  it  became  engrossed  with  disputes 
respecting  the  nature  of  Christ,  and  creed  after  creed 
arose  therefrom ;  to  the  Ebionites  he  was  a  mere  man ; 
to  tho  Docetes,  a  phantasm ;  to  tho  Jewish  Gnostic, 
Cerinthus,  possessed  of  a  twofold  nature ;  how,  after  the 
spread  of  Christianity,  in  succeeding  ages,  all  over  the 
empire,  the  intellectual  peculiarites  of  the  East  and  West 
were  visibly  impressed  upon  it — the  East  filled  with 
speculative  doctrines,  of  which  the  most  important  were 
Eastern  thco-  *noso  brought  forward  by  the  Platonists  of 
IOKV  t^nds  to  Alexandria,  for  the  Platonists,  of  all  Philoso- 
Divimty,  phical  sects,  furnished  most  converts ;  the  West, 
in  accordance  with  its  utilitarian  genius,  which  esteems 
the  practical  and  disparages  the  intellectual,  singularly 
aided  by  propitious  opportunity,  occupying  itself  with 
material  aggrandizement  and  territorial  power.  Tho 
vanishing  point  of  all  Christian  sectarian  ideas  of  tho 
East  was  in  God,  of  those  of  the  West  in  Man.  Herein 


CH.  IX.]  THE  EUROPEAN  AGE  OF  INQUIRY.  271 

consists  the  essential  difference  between  them.     The  one 
was  rich  in  doctrines  respecting  the  nature  of  western  to 
the  Divinity,  the  other  abounded  in  regulations  Humanity, 
for  the  improvement  and  consolation  of  humanity.     For 
long   there  was   a  tolerance,  and  even  liberality  toward 
differences  of  opinion.     Until  the  Council  ofNicea,  no  one 
was  accounted  a  heretic  if  only  he  professed  his  belief  in 
the  Apostles'  Creed. 

A  very  astute  ecclesiastical  historian,  referring  to  the 
early   contaminations   of    Christianity,    makes  Fpreign  modi_ 
this  remark:  "A  clear  and  unpolluted  fountain  fictions  of 
fed  by  secret  channels  with  the  dew  of  Heaven,  cl 
when  it  grows  a  large  river,  and  takes  a  long  and  winding 
course,  receives  a  tincture  from  the  various  soils  through 
which  it  passes." 

Thus  influenced  by  circumstances,  the  primitive 
modifications  of  Christianity  were  three — Judaic  Christi- 
anity, Gnostic  Christianity,  African  Christianity. 

Of  these,  the  first  consisted  of  contaminations  from 
Judaism,  from  which  true  Christianity  disen-  Judaic  Chris- 
tangled  itself  with  extreme  difficulty,  at  the  t^ity- 
cost  of  dissensions  among  the  Apostles  themselves. 
From  the  purely  Hebrew  point  of  view  of  the  early 
disciples,  who  surrendered  with  reluctance  their  expecta- 
tion that  the  Saviour  was  the  long-looked-for  temporal 
Messiah,  the  King  of  the  Jews,  under  which  name  he 
suffered,  the  faith  gradually  expanded,  including  suc- 
cessively proselytes  of  the  Gate,  the  surrounding  Gentiles, 
and  at  last  the  whole  world,  irrespective  of  nation,  climate, 
or  colour.  With  this  truly  imperial  extension,  there  came 
into  view  the  essential  doctrines  on  which  it  was  based. 
But  Judaic  Christianity,  properly  speaking,  soon  came  to  an 
untimely  end.  It  was  unable  to  maintain  itself  against 
the  powerful  apostolic  influences  in  the  bosom  of  the 
Church,  and  the  violent  pressure  exerted  by  the  unbeliev- 
ing Jews,  who  exhibited  toward  it  an  inflexible  hatred. 
Moreover,  the  rapid  advance  of  the  new  doctrines  through 
Asia  Minor  and  Greece  offered  a  tempting  field  for 
enthusiasm.  The  first  preachers  in  the  Koman  empire  were 
Jews ;  for  the  first  years  circumcision  and  conformity  to 
the  law  of  Moses  were  insisted  on ;  but  the  first  council 


272          THE  EUROPEAN  AGE  OF  INQUIRY.       [CH.  IX. 

determined  that  point,  at  Jerusalem,  probably  about  A.D. 
49,  in  the  negative.  The  organization  of  the  Church, 
originally  modelled  upon  that  of  the  Synagogue,  was 
changed.  In  the  beginning  the  creed  and  the  rites  wero 
simple ;  it  was  only  necessary  to  profess  belief  in  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  and  baptism  marked  the  admission  of  the 
convert  into  the  community  of  the  faithful.  James,  tho 
brother  of  our  Lord,  as  might,  from  his  relation- 
ship, bo  expected,  occupied  the  position  of  headship  in 
the  Church.  The  names  of  the  bishops  of  the  church  of 
Jerusalem,  as  given  by  Eusebius,  succeed  to  James,  the 
brother  of  Christ,  in  the  following  order :  Simeon,  Justus, 
Zaccheus,  Tobias,  Benjamin,  John,  Matthew,  Philip, 
Simeon,  Justus,  Levi,  Ephraim,  Joseph,  and  Judas.  The 
names  are  indicative  of  the  nationality.  It  was  the 
boast  of  this  Church  that  it  was  not  corrupted  with  any 
heresy  until  the  last  Jewish  bishop,  a  boast  which  must 
be  received  with  some  limitation,  for  very  early  we  find 
traces  of  two  distinct  parties  in  Jerusalem— those  who 
received  the  account  of  tho  miraculous  conception  and 
those  who  did  not.  The  Ebionites,  who  were  desirous  of 
tracing  our  Saviour's  lineage  up  to  David,  did  so  accord- 
ing to  the  genealogy  given  in  the  Gospel  of  St.  Mathew, 
and  therefore  they  would  not  accept  what  was  said 
respecting  the  miraculous  conception,  affirming  that  it 
was  apocryphal,  and  in  obvious  contradiction  to  the 
genealogy  in  which  our  Saviour's  lino  was  traced  up 
through  Joseph,  who,  it  would  thus  appear,  was  not  his 
father.  They  are  to  be  considered  as  the  national  or 
patriotic  party. 

Two  causes  seem  to  have  been  concerned  in  arresting  the 
Causes  of  the  spread  of  conversion  among  the  Jews  :  the  first 
arrest  of  Jew-  was  their  disappointment  as  respects  tho  tern-. 
"on<  poral  power  of  the  Messiah ;  the  second,  tho 
prominence  eventually  given  to  tho  doctrine  of  the  Trinity. 
Their  jealousy  of  anything  that  might  touch  the  national 
doctrine  of  the  unity  of  God  became  almost  a  fanaticism. 
Judaic  Christianity  may  be  said  to  have  virtually  ended 
with  the  destruction  of  J  erusalem  by  the  Romans ;  its 
last  trace,  however,  was  the  dispute  respecting  Easter, 
which  was  terminated  by  the  Council  of  Nicea.  The 


CH.  IX.]  THE  EUROPEAN  AGE  OF  INQUIRY.  273 

conversion  of  the  Jews  had  ceased  before  the  reign  of 
Constantine. 

The  second  form,  Gnostic  Christianity,  had  reached  its 
full  development  within  a  century  after  the  death  of 
Christ ;  it  maintained  an  active  influence  through  the  first 
four  centuries,  and  gave  birth,  during  that  time,  Gnomic 
to  many  different  subordinate  sects.  It  consisted  Christianity, 
essentially  in  ingrafting  Christianity  upon  Magianism. 
It  made  the  Saviour  an  emanated  intelligence,  derived 
from  the  eternal,  self-existing  mind  ;  this  intelligence,  and 
not  the  Man- Jesus,  was  the  Christ,  who  thus,  being  an 
impassive  phantom,  afforded  to  Gnosticism  no  idea  of  an 
expiatory  sacrifice,  none  of  an  atonement.  It  was  arrested 
by  the  reappearance  of  pure  Magianism  in  the  Persian 
empire  under  Ardeschir  Babhegan ;  not,  however,  without 
communicating  to  orthodox  Christianity  an  impression  far 
more  profound  than  is  commonly  supposed,  and  one  of 
which  indelible  traces  may  be  perceived  in  our  day. 

The  third  form,  African  or  Platonic  Christianity,  arose 
in  Alexandria.  Here  was  the  focus  of  those  fatal  piatonic 
disputes  respecting  the  Trinity,  a  word  which  Christianity. 
does  not  occur  in  the  Holy  Scriptures,  and  which,  it 
appears,  had  been  first  introduced  by  Theophilus,  the 
Bishop  of  Antioch,  the  seventh  from  the  apostles.  In 
the  time  of  Hadrian,  Christianity  had  become  diffused  all 
over  Egypt,  and  had  found  among  the  Platonizing  philo- 
sophers of  the  metropolis  many  converts.  These  men 
modified  the  Gnostic  idea  to  suit  their  own  doctrines, 
asserting  that  the  principle  from  which  the  universe  ori- 
ginated was  something  emitted  from  the  Supreme  Mind, 
and  capable  of  being  drawn  into  it  again,  as  they  supposed 
was  the  case  with  a  ray  and  the  sun.  This  ray,  they 
affirmed,  was  permanently  attached  to  our  Saviour,  and 
hence  he  might  be  considered  as  God.  Thus,  therefore, 
there  were  in  his  person  three  parts,  a  body,  a  soul,  and 
the  logos  ;  hence  he  was  both  God  and  man.  But,  as  a 
ray  is  inferior  to  the  sun,  it  seemed  to  follow  that  the 
Christ  must  be  inferior  to  the  Father. 

In  all  this  it  is  evident  that  there  is  something  tran- 
scendental, and  the  Platonizing  Christians,  following  the 
habit  of  the  Greek  philosophers,  considered  it  as  a 

13* 


274  THE   EUROPEAN   AGE   OF    INQUIRY.  [CII.  IX. 

mysterious  doctrine ;  they  spoke  of  it  as  "  meat  for  strong 
men,"  but  the  popular  current  doctrine  was  "milk  for 
babes."  Justin  Martyr,  A.D.  132,  who  had  been  a  Platonic 
philosopher,  believed  that  the  divine  ray,  after  it  was 
attached  to  Christ,  was  never  withdrawn  from 
him,  and  never  separated  from  its  source.  He 
offers  two  illustrations  of  his  idea.  As  speech  (logos),  going 
forth  from  one  man,  enters  into  another,  conveying  to  him 
meaning,  while  the  same  meaning  remains  in  the  person 
who  speaks,  thus  the  logos  of  the  Father  continues  unim- 
paired in  himself,  though  imparted  to  the  Christ ;  or,  as 
from  one  lamp  another  may  be  lighted  without  any  loss  of 
splendour,  so  the  divinity  of  the  Father  is  transferred  to 
the  Son.  This  last  illustration  subsequently  became  very 
popular,  and  was  adopted  into  the  Nicene  Creed.  "  God 
of  God,  Light  of  Light." 

It  is  obvious  that  the  intention  of  this  reasoning  was  to 
preserve  intact,  the  doctrine  of  the  unity  of  God,  for  the 
great  body  of  Christians  were  at  this  time  monarchists,  the 
word  being  used  in  its  theological  acceptation. 

Thus  the  Jewish  and  Gnostic  forms  both  died  out,  but 
Permanence  ^ke  African,  Platonic,  or  Alexandrian,  was  des- 
of  Aiexan-  tined  to  be  perpetuated.  The  manner  in  which 
ideas,  ^is  occurred,  can  only  be  understood  by  a  study 
of  the  political  history  of  the  times.  To  such  facts  as  are 
needful  for  the  purpose,  I  shall  therefore  with  brevity  allude. 

From  its  birthplace  in  Judea,  Christianity  advanced  to 
the  conquest  of  the  Roman  world.  In  its  primitive  form 
spread  of  ^  received  an  urgency  from  the  belief  that  the 
curistianity  end  of  all  things  was  close  at  hand,  and  that 
ria*  the  earth  was  on  the  point  of  being  burnt  up 
by  fire.  From  tho  civil  war  it  waged  in  Judea,  it  emerged 
to  enter  on  a  war  of  invasion  and  foreign  annexation.  In 
succession,  Cyprus,  Fhrygia,  Galatia,  and  all  Asia  Minor, 
Greece,  and  Italy,  were  penetrated.  The  persecutions  of 
Nero,  incident  on  the  burning  of  Rome,  did  not  for  r, 
moment  retard  its  career;  during  his  reign  it  rapidly 
spread,  and  in  every  direction  Petrine  and  Pauline,  or 
Judaizing  and  Hellenizing  churches  were  springing  up. 
The  latter  gained  the  superiority,  and  the  former  passed 
away.  The  constitution  of  the  churches  changed,  tao 


CH.  IX.]  THE  EUROPEAN   AGE   OF   INQUIRY.  275 

congregations  gradually  losing  power,  which  became  con- 
centrated in  the  bishop.     By  the  end  of  the  first 
century  the  episcopal  form  was  predominant,  and  Of  orpaniza^ 
the  ecclesiastical  organization  so  imposing  as  to  tion  become 
command  the  attention  of  the  emperors,  who  now 
began  to  discover  the  mistake  that  had  hitherto  been  made 
in  confounding  the  new  religion  with  Judaism.     Their  dis- 
like to  it,  soon  manifested  in  measures  of  repression,  was 
in  consequence  of  the  peculiar  attitude  it  assumed.     As  a 
body,   the   Christians  not  only  kept  aloof  from  all  the 
amusements  of  the  times,  avoiding  theatres  and  public 
rejoicings,  but  in  every  respect  constituted  themselves  an 
empire  within  the  empire.     Such  a  state  of  things  was 
altogether    inconsistent  with    the    established 
government,  and  its  certain  inconveniences  and  antagonistic 
evils  were  not  long  in  making  themselves  felt.  *°  impwwi- 
The  triumphant  march  of  Christianity  was  sin- 
gularly facilitated  by  free  intercommunication  over  the 
Mediterranean,  in  consequence  of  that  sea  being  in  the 
hands  of  one  sovereign  power.     The  Jewish  and  Greek 
merchants   afforded  it  a   medium ;   their  trading  towns 
were  its  posts.   But  it  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  its  spread 
was  without  resistance ;  for  at  least  the  first  century  and  a 
half  the  small   farmers  and  land  labourers  entertained  a 
hatred  to  it,  looking  upon  it  as  a  peculiarity  of  the  trading 
communities,  whom  they  ever  despised.     They  persuaded 
themselves   that   the   earthquakes,  inundations  Persecution 
and  pestilences  were  attributable  to  it.   To  these  consolidates  it. 
incitements  was  added  a  desire  to  seize  the  property  of 
the  faithful  conh'scated  by  the  law.      Of  this  the  early 
Christians  unceasingly  and  bitterly  complained.     But  the 
rack,  the  fire,  wild  beasts  were  unavailingly  applied.     Out 
of  the  very  persecutions    themselves   advantages  arose. 
Injustice  and  barbarity  bound  the  pious  but  feeble  com- 
munities together,  and  repressed  internal  dissent. 

In  several  instances,  however,  there  can  be  no  doubt 
that  persecution  was  brought  on  by  the  defiant  p^^  ^  of 
air  the  churches    assumed   as    they    gathered  the  young 
strength.     To  understand  this,  we  have  only  to  churches- 
peruse   such  documents  as  the  address  of  Tertullian  to 
Scapula.     Full  of  intolerant  spirit,  it  accuses  the  national 


276  THE  EUROPEAN   AGE   OF   INQUIRY.  [oil.  IX. 

religion  of  being  the  cause  of  all  the  public  calamities,  the 
floods,  the  fires,  the  eclipses  ;  it  denounces  the  vengeance 
of  God  on  the  national  idolatry.  As  was  the  opinion  of 
the  Christians  at  that  time,  it  acknowledges  the  reality  of 
the  pagan  gods,  whom  it  stigmatizes  as  demons,  and  pro- 
claims its  determination  to  expel  them.  It  warns  its 
opponents  that  they  may  be  stricken  blind,  devoured  by 
worms,  or  visited  with  other  awful  calamities.  Such  a 
sentiment  of  scorn  and  hatred,  gathering  force  enough  to 
Opposition  of  make  itself  politically  felt,  was  certain  to 
the  emperors,  provoke  persecution.  That  of  Decius,  A.D.  250, 
was  chiefly  aimed  against  the  clergy,  not  even  the  bishops 
of  Jerusalem,  Antioch,  and  Eome  escaping.  Eight  years 
afterwards  occurred  that  in  which  Sextus,  the  Bishop  of 
Eome,  and  Cyprian  of  Carthage  perished. 

Under  Diocletian  it  had  become  apparent  that  the  self- 
Po«itionof  governed  Christian  corporations  everywhere 
thinKs  under  arising  were  altogether  incompatible  with  the 

icuan.  imperial  system.  If  tolerated  much  longer, 
they  would  undoubtedly  gain  such  strength  as  to  become 
politically  quite  formidable.  There  was  not  a  town,  hardly 
a  village  in  the  empire — nay,  what  was  indeed  far  more 
serious,  there  was  not  a  legion  in  which  these  organizations 
did  not  exist.  The  uncompromising  and  inexorable  spirit 
animating  them  brought  on  necessarily  a  triple  alliance 
of  the  statesmen,  the  philosophers,  and  the  polytheists. 
These  three  parties,  composing  or  postponing  their  mutual 
disputes,  cordially  united  to  put  down  the  common  enemy 
before  it  should  be  too  late.  It  so  fell  out  that  the  conflict 
first  broke  out  in  the-  army.  When  the  engine  of  power 
is  affected,  it  behoves  a  prince  to  take  heed.  The  Christian 
soldiers  in  some  of  the  legions  refused  to  join  in  the 
time-honoured  solemnities  for  propitiating  the  gods.  It 
was  in  the  winter  A.D.  302-3.  The  emergency  became  so 
pressing  that  a  council  was  held  by  Diocletian  and  Galerius 
to  determine  what  should  be  done.  The  difficulty  of  the 
position  may  perhaps  be  appreciated  when  it  is  understood 
that  even  the  wife  and  daughter  of  Diocletian  himself  were 
adherents  of  the  new  religion.  He  was  a  man  of  such 
capacity  and  enlarged  political  views  that,  at  the  second 
council  of  the  leading  statesmen  and  generals,  ho  would 


CH.  IX.J  THE   EUROPEAN  AGE  OF   INQUIRY.  277 

not  have  been  brought  to  give  his  consent  to  repression  if 
it  had  not  been  quite  clear  that  a  conflict  was  unavoidable. 
His  extreme  reluctance  to  act  is  shown  by  the  express 
stipulation  he  made  that  there  should  be  no  imperial  per- 
sacrifice  of  life.  It  is  scarcely  necessary  to  secutlons- 
relate  the  events  which  ensued ;  how  the  Church  of 
Nicomedia  was  razed  to  the  ground  ;  how,  in  retaliation, 
the  imperial  palace  was  set  on  fire ;  how  an  edict  was 
openly  insulted  and  torn  down  ;  how  the  Christian  officers 
in  the  army  were  compelled  to  resign  ;  and,  as  Eusebius, 
an  eye-witness,  relates,  a  vast  number  of  martyrs  soon 
suffered  in  Armenia,  Syria,  Mauritania,  Egypt,  and  else- 
where. So  resistless  was  the  march  of  events  that  not 
even  the  emperor  himself  could  stop  the  persecution.  The 
Christians  were  given  over  to  torture,  the  fire,  wild  beasts, 
beheading  ;  many  of  them,  in  the  moment  of  condemnation, 
simply  returning  thanks  to  God  that  he  had  thought  them 
worthy  to  suffer.  The  whole  world  was  filled  with  ad- 
miration. The  greatness  of  such  holy  courage  could  have 
no  other  result.  An  internecine  conflict  between  the  dis- 
putants seemed  to  be  inevitable.  But,  in  the  dark  and 
bloody  policy  of  the  times,  the  question  was  settled  in  an 
unexpected  way.  To  Constantino,  who  had  fled  from 
the  treacherous  custody  of  Galerius,  it  naturally  occurred 
that  if  he  should  ally  himself  to  the  Christian  party,  con- 
spicuous advantages  must  forthwith  accrue  to  Their  grea!t 
him.  It  would  give  him  in  every  corner  of  the  political  c  n- 
empire  men  and  women  ready  to  encounter  fire  K 
and  sword  ;  it  would  give  him  partisans,  not  only  animated 
by  the  traditions  of  their  fathers,  but — for  human  nature 
will  even  in  the  religious  assert  itself — demanding  retribu- 
tion for  the  horrible  barbarities  and  injustice  that  had 
been  inflicted  on  themselves ;  it  would  give  him,  and  this 
was  the  most  important  of  all,  unwavering  adherents  in 
every  legion  of  the  army.  He  took  his  course.  The  events 
of  war  crowned  him  with  success.  He  could  Successful 
not  be  otherwise  than  outwardly  true  to  those  policy  of  Con- 
who  had  given  him  power,  and  who  continued  8t 
to  maintain  him  on  the  throne.  But  he  never  conformed 
to  the  ceremonial  requirements  .of  the  Church  till  the  close 
of  his  evil  life. 


278  THE  EUROPEAN   AGE   OF   INQUIRY.  [CH.   IX. 

The  attempt  to  make  an  alliance  with  this  great  and 
rapidly  growing  party  was  nothing  new.  Maximin  tried 
it,  but  was  distrusted.  Licinius,  foreseeing  the  policy 
that  Constantino  would  certainly  pursue,  endeavoured  to 
neutralize  it  by  feebly  reviving  the  persecution,  A.D.  316, 
thinking  thereby  to  conciliate  the  pagans.  The  aspirants 
for  empire  at  this  moment  so  divided  the  strength  of  the 
state  that,  had  the  Christian  party  been  weaker  than  it 
actually  was,  it  so  held  the  balance  of  power  as  to  be  able 
to  give  a  preponderance  to  the  candidate  of  its  choice. 
Much  more,  therefore,  was  it  certain  to  prevail,  considering 
its  numbers,  its  ramifications,  its  compactness  Force, 
argument,  and  persuasion  had  alike  proved  ine'  cctual 
against  its  strength. 

To  the  reign  of  Constantino  the  Great  must  be  referred 
influence  of  the  commencement  of  those  dark  and  dismal 
the  reign  of  times  which  oppressed  Europe  for  a  thousand 
me'  years.  It  is  the  true  close  of  the  Roman  empire, 
the  beginning  of  the  Greek.  The  transition  from  one  to 
the  other  is  emphatically  and  abruptly  marked  by  a  new 
metropolis,  a  new  religion,  a  new  code,  and,  above  all,  a 
new  policy.  An  ambitious  man  had  attained  to  imperial 
power  by  personating  the  interests  of  a  rapidly  growing 
party.  The  unavoidable  consequences  were  a  union  between 
the  Church  and  State ;  a  diverting  of  the  dangerous  classes 
from  civil  to  ecclesiastical  paths,  and  the  decay  and 
materialization  of  religion.  This,  and  not  the  reign  of 
Leo  the  Tsaurian,  as  some  have  said,  is  the  true  beginning 
of  the  Byzantine  empire  ;  it  is  also  the  beginning  of  the 
age  of  Faith  in  Europe,  though  I  consider  the  age  of 
Inquiry  as  overlapping  this  epoch,  and  as  terminating 
with  the  military  fall  of  Rome. 

Ecclesiastical  authors  have  made  everything  hinge  on 
the  conversion  of  Constantino  and  the  national  establish- 
ment of  Christianity.  The  medium  through  which  they 
look  distorts  -the  position  of  objects,  and  magnifies  tho 
subordinate  and  the  collateral  into  the  chief.  Events  had 
been  gradually  shaping  themselves  in  such  a  way  that  the 
political  fall  of  the  city  of  Rome  was  inevitable.  Tho 
Romans,  as  a  people,  had  disappeared,  being  absorbed 
among  other  nations  ;  the  centre  of  power  was  in  tho 


CH.  IX.]  THE  EUBOPEAN  AGE   OF  INQUIRY.  279 

army.  One  after  another,  the  legions  put  forth  competitors 
for  the  purple — soldiers  of  fortune,  whose  success  could 
never  remove  low  habits  due  to  a  base  origin,  the  coarse- 
ness of  a  life  of  camps — who  found  no  congeniality  in  the 
elegance  and  refinement  of  those  relics  of  the  ancient 
families  which  were  expiring  in  Rome.  They  despiser1 
the  military  decrepitude  of  the  superannuated  city;  her 
recollections  they  hated.  To  such  men  the  expediency  of 
founding  a  new  capital  was  an  obvious  device ;  or,  if 
indisposed  to  undertake  so  laborious  a  task,  the  removal 
of  the  imperial  residence  to  some  other  of  the  great  towns 
was  an  effectual  substitute.  It  was  thus  that  the  residence 
of  Diocletian  at  Nicomedia  produced  such  disastrous  con- 
sequences in  a  short  time  to  Eome. 

After  Constantine  had  murdered  his  son  Crispus,  his 
nephew  Licinius,  and  had  suffocated  in  a  steam-bath  his 
wife  Fau.?ta,  to  whom  he  had  been  married  twenty  years, 
and  who  was  the  mother  of  three  of  his  sons,  the  TT  ._,--,,.„ 

.  m 

public  abhorrence  of  his  crimes  could  no  longer  removing  the 
be  concealed.  A  -pasquinade,  comparing  his  m 
reign  to  that  of  Nero,  was  affixed  to  the  palace  gate.  The 
guilty  emperor,  in  the  first  burst  of  anger,  was  on  the 
point  of  darkening  the  tragedy,  if  such  a  thing  had  been 
possible,  by  a  massacre  of  the  Roman  populace  who  had 
thus  insulted  him.  It  is  said  that  his  brothers  were  con- 
sulted on  this  measure  of  vengeance.  The  result  of  their 
counsel  was  even  more  deadly,  for  it  was  resolved  to 
degrade  Rome  to  a  subordinate  rank,  and  build  a  metropolis 
elsewhere. 

Political  conditions  thus  at  once  suggested  and  rendered 
possible  the  translation  of  the  seat  of  government:  the 
temporary  motive  was  the  vengeance  of  a  great  criminal. 
Perhaps,  also,  in  the  mental  occupation  incident  to  such 
an  undertaking,  the  emperor  found  a  refuge  from  the 
accusations  of  conscience.  But  it  is  altogether  erroneous 
to  suppose  that  either  at  this  time,  or  for  many  years  sub- 
sequently, he  was  a  Christian.  His  actions  are  He  ig  a  pro_ 
not  those  of  a  devout  convert ;  he  was  no  prose-  tector.butnot 
lyte,  but  a  protector ;  never  guiding  himself  by  a 
religious  principles,  but  now  giving  the  most  valuable 
support  to  his  new  allies,  now  exhibiting  the  impartiality 


280  THE   EUROPEAN   AGE   OF   INQUIRY.  [CH.  IX. 

of  a  statesman  for  both  forms  of  faith.  In.  his  character 
of  Pontifex  Maximus  ho  restored  pagan  temples,  and 
directed  that  the  haruspices  should  be  consulted.  On  the 
festival  of  the  birthday  of  the  new  city  he  honoured  the 
statue  of  Fortune.  The  continued  heathen  sacrifices  and 
open  temples  seemed  to  indicate  that  he  intended  to  do 
no  more  than  place  the  new  religion  on  a  level  with  the 
old.  His  recommendation  to  the  Bishop  of  Alexandria 
and  to  Arius  of  the  example  of  the  philosophers,  who  never 
debated  profound  questions  before  ignorant  audiences,  and 
who  could  differ  without  hating  one  another,  illustrates 
the  indifferentism  of  his  personal  attitude,  and  yet  ho 
clearly  recognized  his  obligations  to  the  party  that  had 
given  him  power. 

This  conclusion  is  confirmed  by  the  works  of  Constantino 
himself.  They  must  be  regarded  as  far  better  authority 
than  the  writings  of  religious  polemics.  A  medal  was 
Histendoncics  struck,  on  which  was  impressed  his  title  of 
to  Paganism.  "  God,"  together  with  the  monogram  of  Christ. 
Another  represented  him  as  raised  by  a  hand  from  the 
eky  while  seated  in  the  chariot  of  the  Sun.  But  more 
particularly  the  great  porphyry  pillar,  a  column  120  feet 
in  height,  exhibited  the  true  religious  condition  of  the 
founder  of  Constantinople.  The  statue  on  its  summit 
mingled  together  the  Sun,  the  Saviour,  and  the  Emperor. 
Its  body  was  a  colossal  imago  of  Apollo,  whose  features 
were  replaced  by  those  of  Constantino,  and  round  the  head, 
like  rays,  were  fixed  the  nails  of  the  cross  of  Christ  recently 
discovered  in  Jerusalem. 

The  position  of  a  patron  assumed  by  Constantino  may 
be  remarked  in  many  of  the  incidents  of  his  policy.  Tho 
edict  of  Milan  gave  liberty  both  to  Pagans  and  Christians ; 
but  his  necessity  for  showing  in  some  degree  a  preponder- 
ance of  favour  for  the  latter  obliged  him  to  issue  a  rescript 
exempting  the  clergy  from  civil  offices.  It  was  this  also 
which  led  him  to  conciliate  the  bishops  by  the  donation  of 
large  sums  of  money  for  the  restoration  of  their  churches 
and  other  purposes,  and  to  exert  himself,  often  by  objec- 
tionable means,  for  destroying  that  which  they  who  were 
around  him  considered  to  be  heresy.  A  better  motive, 
perhaps,  led  him  to  restore  those  Christians  who  had  been 


CH.  IX.]  THE  EUROPEAN  AGE  OF  INQUIRY.  281 

degraded  ;  to  surrender  to  the  legal  heirs  the  confiscated 
estates  of  martyrs,  or,  if  no  heirs  were  to  be  found,  to  con- 
vey them  to  the  Church  ;  to  set  at  liberty  those  who  had 
been  condemned  to  the  mines ;  to  recall  those  who  had 
been  banished.  If,  as  a  tribute  to  the  Christians,  who  had 
sustained  him  politically,  he  made  the  imperial  treasury 
responsible  for  many  of  their  losses ;  if  he  caused  costly 
churches  to  be  built,  not  only  iu  the  great  cities,  but  even 
in  the  Holy  Land ;  if  he  vindicated  the  triumphant  posi- 
tion of  his  supporters  by  forbidding  any  Jew  to  have  a 
Christian  slave ;  if  he  undertook  to  enforce  the  decisions 
of  councils  by  means  of  the  power  of  the  state  ;  if  he  for- 
bade all  schism  in  the  Church,  himself  determining  the 
degrees  of  heresy  under  the  inspirations  of  his  ecclesiastical 
entourage,  his  vacillations  show  how  little  he  His  relations 
was  guided  by  principle,  how  much  by  policy,  to  the  church. 
After  the  case  of  the  Donatists  had  been  settled  by  repeated 
councils,  he  spontaneously  recalled  them  from  banishment ; 
after  he  had  denounced  Arius  as  "  the  very  image  of  the 
Devil,"  he,  through  the  influence  of  court  females,  received 
him  again  into  favour ;  after  the  temple  of  ^Esculapius  at 
/Egae  had  been  demolished,  and  the  doors  and  roofs  of 
others  removed,  the  pagans  were  half  conciliated  by  per- 
ceiving that  no  steady  care  was  taken  to  enforce  the 
obnoxious  decrees,  and  that,  after  all,  the  Christians  would 
have  to  accept  the  declarations  of  the  emperor  for  deeds. 
.  In  a  double  respect  the  removal  of  the  seat  of  empire 
was  important  to  Christianity.  It  rendered  possible  the 
assumption  of  power  bv  the  bishops  of  Home, 

,          •          ,,          f  -ij-ij?  •  •    i     i_  '  'onsequences 

who  were  thereby  secluded  irom  imperial  obser-  Ot  bmuinga 
vation  and  inspection,  and  whose  position,  feeble  n^1*gmttro" 
at  first,  under  such  singularly  auspicious  circum- 
stances was  at  last  developed  into  papal  supremacy.     In 
Constantinople,  also,  there  were  no  pagan  recollections  and 
interests  to  contend  with.     At  first  the  new  city  was  essen- 
tially Roman,  and  its  language  Latin  ;  but  this  was  soon 
changed  for  Greek,  and  thus  the  transference  of  the  seat 
of  government  tended  in  the  end  to  make  Latin  a  sacred 
tongue. 

Constantino  knew  very  well  where  Eoman  power  had 
for  many  years  lain.     His  own  history,  from  the  time  of 


2£2  THE  EUROPEAN   AGE  OF  INQUIRY.  [CH.  IX. 

his  father's  death  and  his  exaltation  by  the  legions  at  York, 
had  taught  him  that,  for  the  perpetuation  of  his  dynasty 
and  system,  those  formidable  bodies  must  be  disposed  of. 
The  policy  of  It  was  for  this  reason,  and  that  no  future  com- 
Constantine.  mander  might  do  what  himself  and  so  many  of 
his  predecessors  had  done,  that  he  reduced  the  strength  of 
the  legion  from  6000  to  1500  or  1000  men.  For  this 
reason,  too,  he  opened  to  ambition  the  less  dangerous  field 
of  ecclesiastical  wealth  and  dignity,  justly  concluding  that, 
since  the  clergy  came  from  every  class  of  society,  the 
whole  people  would  look  to  the  prosperity  of  the  Church. 
By  exempting  the  priesthood  from  burdensome  municipal 
offices,  such  as  the  decurionate,  he  put  a  premium  on 
apostacy  from  paganism.  The  interest  he  personally  took 
in  the  Trinitarian  controversy  encouraged  the  spreading 
of  theological  disputation  from  philosophers  and  men  of 
capacity  to  the  populace.  Under  the  old  polytheism  heresy 
was  impossible,  since  every  man  might  select  his  god  and 
his  worship  ;  but  under  the  new  monotheism  it  was  inevi- 
table— heresy,  a  word  that  provokes  and  justifies  a  black 
catalogue  of  crimes.  Occupied  in  those  exciting  pursuits, 
men  took  but  little  heed  of  the  more  important  political 
changes  that  were  in  progress.  The  eyes  of  the  rabble 
were  easily  turned  from  the  movements  of  the  government 
by  horse-racing,  theatres,  largesses.  Yet  already  this  diver- 
sion of  ambition  into  new  fields  gave  tokens  of  dangers 
to  the  state  in  future  times.  The  Donatists,  whom  Con- 
stantine  had  attempted  to  pacify  by  the  Councils  of  Rome, 
Aries,  and  Milan,  maintained  a  more  than  religious  revolt, 
and  exhibited  the  bitterness  that  may  be  infused  among 
competitors  for  ecclesiastical  spoils.  These  enthusiasts 
assumed  to  themselves  the  title  of  God's  elect,  proclaimed 
that  the  only  true  apostolic  succession  was  in  their  bishops, 
and  that  whosoever  denied  the  right  of  Donatus  to  bo 
Bishop  of  Carthago  should  be  eternally  damned.  They 
asked,  with  a  truth  that  lent  force  to  their  demand, 
"  What  has  the  emperor  to  do  with  the  Church,  what  have 
Christians  to  do  with  kings,  what  have  bishops  to  do  at 
court?'  Already  the  Catholic  party,  in  preparation  of  its 
commencing  atrocities,  ominously  inquired,  "  Is  the  ven- 
geance of  God  to  be  defrauded  of  its  victims?"  Already 


CH.  IX.J       THE  EUROPEAN  AGE  OP  INQUIRY.  283 

Constantino,  by  bestowing  on  the  Church  the  right  oi 
receiving  bequests,  had  given  birth  to  that  power  which, 
reposing  on  the  influence  that  always  attaches  to  the 
possession  of  land,  becomes  at  last  overwhelming  when  it 
is  held  by  a  corporation  which  may  always  receive  and  can 
never  alienate,  which  is  always  renewing  itself  and  can 
never  die.  It  was  by  no  miraculous  agency,  but  simply 
by  its  organization,  that  the  Church  attained  to  power ; 
an  individual  who  must  die,  and  a  family  which  must 
become  extinct,  had  no  chance  against  a  corporation  whose 
purposes  were  ever  unchanged,  and  its  life  perpetual.  But 
it  was  not  the  state  alone  which  thus  took  detriment  from 
her  connection  with  the  Church  ;  the  latter  paid  a  full 
price  for  the  temporal  advantages  she  received  in  admitting 
civil  intervention  in  her  affairs.  After  a  retrospect  of  a 
thousand  years,  the  pious  Fratricelli  loudly  proclaimed 
their  conviction  that  the  fatal  gift  of  a  Christian  emperor 
had  been  the  doom  of  true  religion. 

From  the  rough  soldier  who  accepted  the  purple  at 
York,  how  great  the  change  to  the  effeminate  emperor  of 
the  Bosphorus,  in  silken  robes  stiffened  with  threads  of 
gold,  a  diadem  of  sapphires  and  pearls,  and  false  hair 
stained  of  various  tints ;  his  steps  stealthily  guarded  by 
mysterious  eunuchs  flitting  through  the  palace,  the  streets 
full  of  spies,  and  an  ever- watchful  police  !  The  same  man 
who  approaches  us  as  the  Eoman  imperator  retires  from 
us  as  the  Asiatic  despot.  In  the  last  days  of  his  Hisconvcrsicn 
life,  he  put  aside  the  imperial  purple,  and,  an(i<i^th. 
assuming  the  customary  white  garment,  prepared  for 
baptism,  that  the  sins  of  his  long  and  evil  life  might  all 
be  washed  away.  Since  complete  purification  can  thus  be 
only  once  obtained,  he  was  desirous  to  procrastinate  that 
ceremony  to  the  last  moment.  Profoundly  politic,  even  in 
his  relations  with  heaven,  he  thenceforth  reclined  on  a 
white  bed,  took  no  further  part  in  worldly  affairs,  and, 
having  thus  insured  a  right  to  the  continuance  of  that 
prosperity  in  a  future  life  which  he  had  enjoyed  in  this, 
expired,  A.D.  337. 

In  a  theological  respect,  among  the  chief  events  of 
this  emperor's  reign  are  the  Trinitarian  controversy  and 
tte  open  materialization  of  Christianity.  The  former, 


284  THE  EUROPEAN   AGE  OF  INQUIRY.  [CH.  IX. 

commencing  among  the  Platonizing  ecclesiastics  of  Alex 
The  Tnn-  andria,  continued  for  ages  to  exert  a  formidable 
iurian  con-  influence.  From  time  immemorial,  as  we  have 

rersy'  already  related,  the  Egyptians  had  been  familiar 
with  various  trinities,  different  ones  being  worshipped  in 
different  cities,  the  devotees  of  each  exercising  a  peaceful 
toleration  toward  those  of  others.  But  now  things  were 
greatly  changed.  It  was  the  settled  policy  of  Constantind 
to  divert  ambition  from  the  state  to  the  Church,  and  to 
make  it  not  only  safer,  but  moro  profitable  to  be  a  great 
ecclesiastic  than  a  successful  soldier.  A  violent  com- 
petition, for  the  chief  offices  was  the  consequence — a 
competition,  the  prelude  of  that  still  greater  one  for 
episcopal  supremacy. 

We  are  now  again  brought  to  a  consideration  of  the 
variations  of  opinion  which  marked  this  age.  It  would 
be  impossible  to  give  a  description  of  them  all.  I  there- 
fore propose  to  speak  only  of  the  prominent  ones.  They 
are  a  sufficient  guide  in  our  investigation ;  and  of  the 
Trinitarian  controversy  first. 

For  some  time  past  dissensions  had  been  springing  up 
rreiudpofsec-  in  the  Church.  Even  out  of  persecution  itself 
tarwn  dissent,  disunion  had  arisen.  The  martyrs  who  had 
suffered  for  their  faith,  and  the  confessors  who  had  nobly 
avowed  it,  gained  a  worthy  consideration  and  influence, 
becoming  the  intermedium  of  reconciliation  of  such  of 
their  weaker  brethren  as  had  apostatized  in  times  of  peril 
by  authoritative  recommendations  to  "the  peace  of  the 
Church."  From  this  abuses  arose.  Martyrs  were  known 
to  have  given  the  use  of  their  names  to  "a  man  and  his 
friends ; "  na}',  it  was  even  asserted  that  tickets  of 
recommendation  had  been  bought  for  money ;  and  as  it 
was  desirable  that  a  uniformity  of  discipline  should  obtain 
in  all  the  churches,  so  that  he  who  was  excommunicated 
from  one  should  be  excommunicated  from  all,  it  was 
necessary  that  these  abuses  should  be  corrected.  In  tho 
controversies  that  ensued,  Novatus  founded  his  sect  on 
tho  principle  that  penitent  apostates  should,  under  no 
circumstances,  be  ever  again  received.  Besides  this 
dissent  on  a  question  of  discipline,  already  there  were 
abundant  elements  of  dispute,  such  as  tho  time  of 


CH.  IX.]  THE  EUROPEAN  AGE  OF  INQUIRY.  285 

observance  of  Easter,  the  nature  of  Christ,  the  millennium 
upon  earth,  and  rebaptism.  Already,  in  Syria,  Noetus, 
the  Unitarian,  had  foreshadowed  what  was  coming ; 
already  there  were  Patripassians ;  already  Sabellianism 
existed. 

But  it  was  in  Alexandria  that  the  tempest  burst  forth. 
There  lived  in  that  city  a  presbyter  of  the  Arin.«,his 
name  of  Arius,  who,  on  occasion  of  a  vacancy  doctrines, 
occurring,  desired  to  be  appointed  bishop.  But  one  Alex- 
ander supplanted  him  in  the  coveted  dignity.  Both 
relied  on  numerous  supporters,  Arius  counting  among  his 
not  less  than  seven  hundred  virgins  of  the  Mareotic  nome. 
In  his  disappointment  he  accused  his  successful  antagonist 
of  Sabellianism,  and,  in  retaliation,  was  anathematized. 
It  was  no  wonder  that,  in  such  an  atmosphere,  the 
question  quickly  assumed  a  philosophical  aspect.  The 
point  of  difficulty  was  to  define  the  position  of  the  Son  in 
the  Holy  Trinity.  Arius  took  the  ground  that  there  was 
a  time  when,  from  the  very  nature  of  sonship,  the  Son  did 
not  exist,  and  a  time  at  which  he  commenced  to  be, 
asserting  that  it  is  the  necessary  condition  of  the  filial 
relation  that  a  father  must  be  older  than  his  son.  But 
this  assertion  evidently  might  imply  subordination  or 
inequality  among  the  three  persons  of  the  Holy  Trinity. 
The  partisans  of  Alexander  raised  up  tueir  voices  against 
such  a  blasphemous  lowering  of  the  Kedeemer;  the  Arians 
answered  them  that,  by  exalting  the  Son  in  every  respect 
to  an  equality  with  the  Father,  they  impugned  the  great 
truth  of  the  unity  of  God.  The  new  bishop  himself 
edified  the  giddy  citizens,  and  perhaps,  in  some  degree, 
justified  his  appointment  to  his  place  by  displaying  his 
rhetorical  powers  in  public  debates  on  the  question.  The 
Alexandrians,  little  anticipating  the  serious  and  enduring 
results  soon  to  arise,  amused  themselves,  with  charac- 
teristic levity,  by  theatrical  representations  of  the  contest 
upon  the  stage.  The  passions  of  the  two  parties  were 
roused ;  the  Jews  arid  Pagans,  of  whom  the  town  was  full, 
exasperated  things  by  their  mocking  derision.  The 
dissension  spread  :  the  whole  country  became  convulsed. 
In  the  hot  climate  of  Africa,  theological  controversy  soon 
ripened  into  political  disturbance.  In  all  Egypt  there 


286  THE  EUROPEAN   AGE  OF   INQUIRY.  [dl.  IX. 

V7as  not  a  Christian  man,  and  not  a  woman,  who  did  not 
proceed  to  settle  the  nature  of  the  unity  of  God.  The 
tumult  rose  to  such  a  pitch  that  it  became 
SteSipte'to  necessary  for  the  emperor  to  interfere.  Doubt- 
check  the  con-  iess>  at  first,  he  congratulated  himself  on  such  a 

ersy>  course  of  events.  It  was  better  that  the  pro- 
vinces should  be  fanatically  engaged  in  disputes  than 
secretly  employed  in  treason  against  his  person  or  con- 
spiracies against  his  policy.  A  united  people  is  an 
inconvenience  to  one  in  power.  Nevertheless,  to  compose 
the  matter  somewhat,  he  sent  Hosius,  the  Bishop  of 
Cordova,  to  Alexandria ;  but,  finding  that  the  remedy  was 
and  summons  altogether  inadequate,  he  was  driven  at  last  to 
the  Council  of  the  memorable  expedient  of  summoning  the 
Council  of  Nicea,  A.D.  325.  It  attempted  a 
settlement  of  the  trouble  by  a  condemnation  of  Arius,  and 
the  promulgation  of  authoritative  articles  of  belief  as  set 
forth  in  the  Nicene  Creed.  As  to  the  main  point,  the  Son 
was  declared  to  be  of  the  same  substance  with  the  Father 
— a  temporizing  and  convenient,  but,  as  the  event  proved, 
a  disastrous  ambiguity.  The  Nicene  Council,  therefore, 
settled  the  question  by  evading  it,  and  the  emperor 
enforced  the  decision  by  the  banishment  of  Ai  ius. 

"  I  am  persecuted,"  Arius  plaintively  said,  "  because  I 
have  taught  that  the  Son  had  a  beginning  and  the  Father 
had  not."  It  was  the  influence  of  the  court  theologians 
The  fortunes  that  had  made  the  emperor  his  personal  enemy, 
of  Arius.  Constantino,  as  we  have  seen,  had  looked  upon 
the  dispute,  in  the  first  instance,  as  altogether  frivolous,  if 
ho  did  not,  in  truth,  himself  incline  to  the  assertion  of 
Arius,  that,  in  the  very  nature  of  the  thing,  a  father  must 
bo  older  than  his  son.  The  theatrical  exhibitions  at 
Alexandria  in  mockery  of  the  question  were  calculated  to 
confirm  him  in  his  opinion :  his  judgment  was  lost  in  the 
theories  that  were  springing  up  as  to  the  nature  of  Christ ; 
for  on  the  Ebionitish,  Gnostic,  and  Platonic  doctrines,  as 
well  as  on  the  new  one  that  "  the  logos  "  was  made  out  of 
nothing,  it  equally  followed  that  the  current  opinion  must 
be  erroneous,  and  that  there  was  a  time  before  which  tho 
Son  did  not  exist. 

But,  as  the  contest  spread  through  churches  and  oveii 


CU.  IX.]       THE  EUROPEAN  AGE  OF  INQUIRY.          287 

families,  Constantino  had  found  himself  compelled  to 
intervene.  At  first  he  attempted  the  position  of  a 
moderator,  but  soon  took  ground  against  Arius,  advised  to 
that  course  by  his  entourage  at  Constantinople.  It  was 
at  this  time  that  the  letter  was  circulated  in  which  he 
denounced  Arius  as  the  image  of  the  Devil.  H)sconden,_ 
Arius  might  now  have  foreseen  what  must  nation  as  a 
certainly  occur  at  Nicea.  Before  that  council  heretlc- 
•was  called  everything  was  settled.  No  contemporary  for 
a  moment  supposed  that  this  was  an  assembly  of  simple- 
hearted  men,  anxious  by  a  mutual  comparison  of  thought, 
to  ascertain  the  truth.  Its  aim  was  not  to  compose  such  a 
creed  as  "would  give  unity  to  the  Church,  but  one  so 
worded  that  the  Arians  would  be  compelled  to  refuse  to 
sign  it,  and  so  ruin  themselves.  To  the  creed  was 
attached  an  anathema  precisely  defining  the  point  of 
dispute,  and  leaving  the  foreordained  victims  no  chance  of 
escape.  The  original  Nicene  Creed  differed  in  some 
essential  particulars  from  that  now  current  under  that 
title.  Among  other  things,  the  fatal  and  final  clause  has 
been  dropped.  Thus  it  ran:  "The  Holy  TheNicene 
Catholic  and  Apostolic  Church  anathematizes  Creed- 
those  who  say  that  there  was  a  time  when  the  Son  of  God 
•was  not ;  and  that  before  he  was  begotten  he  was  not,  and 
that  he  was  made  out  of  nothing,  or  out  of  another 
substance  or  essence,  and  is  created,  or  changeable,  or 
alterable."  The  emperor  enforced  the  decision  of  the 
council  by  the  civil  power;  he  circulated  letters  de- 
nouncing Arius,  and  initiated  those  fearful  punishments 
unhappily  destined  in  future  ages  to  become  so  frequent, 
by  ordaining  that  whoever  should  find  one  of  the  books  of 
Arius  arid  not  burn  it  should  actually  be  put  to  death. 

It  might  be  thought  that,  after  such  a  decisive  course, 
it  would  be  impossible  to  change,  and  yet  in  less  than  ten 
years  Constantino  is  found  agreeing  with  the  convict 
Arius.  A  presbyter  in  the  confidence  of  Constantia,  the 
emperor's  sister,  had  wrought  upon  him.  Athanasius,  now 
Bishop  of  Alexandria,  the  representative  of  the  Arius  receiv. 
other  party,  is  deposed  and  banished.  Arius  is  ed  again  into 
invited  to  Constantinople.  'Ihe  emperor  orders  court  favour> 
Alexander,  the  bishop  of  that  city,  to  receive  him  intc 


238  THE  EUROPEAN  AGE  OF  INQUIRY.  [CH.  IX. 

communion  to-morrow.  It  is  Saturday.  Alexander  flees 
to  the  church,  and,  falling  prostrate,  prays  to  God  that 
he  will  interpose  and  save  his  servant  from  being  forced 
into  this  sin,  even  if  it  should  be  by  death.  That  same 
evening  Arius  was  seized  with  a  sudden  and  violent  illness 
as  he  passed  along  the  street,  and  in  a  few  moments  ho 
and  fa  was  found  dead  in  a  house,  whither  he  had 

poisoned.  hastened.  In  Constantinople,  where  men  were 
familiar  with  Asiatic  crimes,  there  was  more  than  a 
suspicion  of  poison.  But  when  Alexander's  party  pro- 
claimed that  his  prayer  had  been  answered,  they  forgot 
what  then  that  prayer  must  have  been,  and  that  the 
difference  is  little  between  praying  for  the  death  of  a  man 
and  compassing  it. 

The  Arians  affirmed  that  it  was  the  intention  of  Con- 
stantino to  have  called  a  new  council,  and  have  the  creed 
r  *  „•!  rectified  according  to  his  more  recent  ideas ; 

Constantine       ,,,-          ,  °  -,  •,  , .   ,      , ,  .         , 

prepares  for »  but,  before  he  could  accomplish  this,  he  was 
new  creed.  overtaken  by  death.  So  little  efficacy  was  there 
in  the  determination  of  the  Council  of  Nicea,  that  for 
many  years  afterward  creed  upon  creed  appeared.  What 
Constantino's  new  creed  would  have  been  may  bo  told 
from  the  fact  that  the  Consubstantialists  had  gone  out  of 
power,  and  from  what  his  son  Constantius  soon  after  did 
at  the  Council  of  Ariminium. 

So  far,  therefore,  from  the  Council  of  Nicea  ending  the 
s  .read of  controversies  afflicting  religion,  they  continued 
thcoioKicai  with  increasing  fury.  The  sons  and  successors 
disputes.  0£  Congtantine  set  an  example  of  violence  in 
these  disputes;  and,  until  the  barbarians  burst  in  upon 
the  empire,  the  fourth  century  wore  away  in  theological 
feuds.  Even  the  populace,  scarcely  emerged  from  paganism, 
set  itself  up  for  a  judge  on  questions  from  their  very  nature 
incapable  of  being  solved ;  and  to  this  the  government 
gave  an  impetus  by  making  the  profits  of  public  service 
the  reward  of  sectarian  violence.  The  policy  of  Constan- 
tine began  to  produce  its  results.  Mental  activity  and 
ambition  found  their  true  field  in  ecclesiastical  affairs. 
Orthodoxy  triumphed,  because  it  was  more  in  unison  with 
the  present  necessity  of  the  court,  while  asserting  the 
predominance  of  Christianity,  to  offend  as  little  as  might 


CH.  IX.]       THE  EUROPEAN  AGE  OF  INQUIRY.          289 

be  the  pagan  party.  The  heresy  of  Arius,  though  it  might 
suit  the  monotheistic  views  of  the  educated,  did  not  com- 
mend itself  to  that  large  mass  who  had  been  so  recently 
pagan.  Already  the  elements  of  dissension  were  obvious 
enough ;  on  one  side  there  was  an  illiterate,  intolerant, 
unscrupulous,  credulous,  numerous  body,  on  the  other  a 
refined,  better-informed,  yet  doubting  sect.  The  Emperor 
Constantius,  guided  by  his  father's  latest  principles,  having 
sided  with  the  Arian  party,  soon  found  that  tinder  the 
new  system  a  bishop  would,  without  hesitation,  oppose  his 
sovereign.  Athanasius,  the  Bishop  of  Alexandria,  as  the 
head  of  the  orthodox  party,  became  the  personal  Ati,anasiug 
antagonist  of  the  emperor,  who  attempted,  after  rebels  against 

•     i  i_       •      i  i    '  the  emperor. 

vainly  using  physical  compulsion,  to  resort  to 
the  celestial  weapons  in  vogue  by  laying  claim  to  Divine 
inspiration.  Like  his  father,  he  had  a  celestial  vision ; 
but,  as  his  views  were  Arian,  the  orthodox  rejected  without 
scruple  his  supernatural  authority,  and  Hilary  of  Poictiers 
wrote  a  book  to  prove  that  he  was  Antichrist.  The  horrible 
bloodshed  and  murders  attending  these  quarrels  in  the 
great  cities,  and  the  private  life  of  persons  both  of  high 
and  low  degree,  clearly  showed  that  Christianity,  through 
its  union  with  politics,  had  fallen  into  such  a  state  that 
it  could  no  longer  control  the  passions  of  men.  The 
biography  of  the  sons  of  Constantino  is  an  awful  relation 
of  family  murders.  Religion  had  disappeared,  theology 
had  come  in  its  stead.  Even  theology  had  gone  mad.  But 
in  the  midst  of  these  disputes  worldly  interests  steady  ag- 
were  steadily  kept  in  view.  At  the  Council  of  session  of  the 

.     .  r.  j  Church  and 

Arimimum,  A. p.  3o9,  an  attempt  was  made  to  crimes  of  ec- 
have  the  lands  belonging  to  the  churches  exempt  clesiastics- 
from  all  taxation ;  to  his  credit,  the  emperor  steadfastly 
refused.     Macedonius,  the  Bishop  of  Constantinople,  who 
had  passed  over  the  slaughtered  bodies  of  three  thousand 
people  to  take  possession  of  his  episcopal  throne,  exceeded 
in  heresy  even  Arius  himself,  by  not  only  asserting  the 
inferiority  of  the  Son  to  the  Father,  but  by  absolutely 
denying  the  divinity  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 

As  the  fruits  of  these  broils,  two  facts  appear  :  1st,  that 
there  is  a  higher  law,  which  the  faithful  may  TWO  results  of 
obey,  in  opposition  to  the  law  of  the  land,  when  these  eveats- 

VOL.  I.— 14 


290  THE  EUROPEAN   AGE  OF  INQUIRY".  [CII.  IX. 

it  suits  their  views  ;  the  law  of  God,  as  expounded  by  the 
bishop,  who  can  eternally  punish  the  soul,  must  take 
precedence  of  the  law  of  Caesar,  who  can  only  kill  the  body 
and  seize  the  goods  ;  2d,  that  there  is  a  supremacy  in  the 
Bishop  of  Kome,  to  whom  Athanasius,  the  leader  of  the 
orthodox,  by  twice  visiting  that  city,  submitted  his  cause. 
The  significance  of  these  facts  becomes  conspicuous  in  later 
ages.  Things  were  evidently  shaping  themselves  for  a 
trial  of  strength  between  the  imperial  and  ecclesiastical 
powers,  heretofore  allied.  They  were  about  to  quarrel 
over  their  booty. 

We  have  now  to  consider  this  asserted  supremacy  of  the 
Bishop  of  Eome,  and  how  it  came  to  bo  established  as  a 
History  of  political  fact.  We  must  also  turn  from  the 
r.iiui  su-  Oriental  variations  of  opinion  to  those  of  the 
West.  Except  by  thus  enlarging  the  field  to  be 
traversed,  we  can  gain  no  perfect  conception  of  the  general 
intellectual  tendency. 

For  long  after  its  introduction  to  Western  Europe, 
unionized  Christianity  was  essentially  a  Greek  religion. 
chrustiunity.  jts  Oriental  aspect  had  become  Hellenized.  Its 
churches  had,  in  the  first  instance,  a  Greek  organization, 
conducted  their  worship  in  that  tongue,  and  composed 
their  writings  in  it.  Though  it  retained  much  of  this 
foreign  aspect  so  long  as  Rome  continued  to  be  the  resi- 
dence, or  was  more  particularly  under  the  eye  of  the 
emperors,  it  was  gradually  being  affected  by  the  influences 
to  which  it  was  exposed.  On  Western  Europe,  the  ques- 
tions which  had  so  profoundly  agitated  the  East,  such  as 
the  nature  of  God,  the  Trinity,  the  cause  of  evil,  had  made 
but  little  impression,  the  intellectual  peculiarity  of  the 
people  being  unsuited  to  such  exercises.  The  foundation 
of  Constantinople,  by  taking  off  the  political  pressure, 
permitted  native  peculiarities  to  manifest  themselves,  and 
Latin  Christianity  emerged  in  contradistinction  to  Greek. 

Yet  still  it  cannot  be  said  that  Europe  owes  its  existing 
Modified  by  forms  of  Christianity  to  a  Roman  origin.  It  is 
Africanism,  indebted  to  Africa  for  them.  We  live  under 
African  domination. 

I  have  now  with  brevity  to  relate  the  progress  of  thit 
interesting  event ;  how  African  conceptions  were  firmlj 


CH.  IX.]  THE  EUROPEAN  AGE   OF    INQUIRY.  291 

established  in  Rome,  and,  by  the  time  that  Greek  Chris- 
tianity had  lost  its  expansive  power  and  ceased  to  be 
aggressive,  African  Christianity  took  its  place,  extending 
to  the  North  and  West,  and  obtaining  for  itself  an  organi- 
zation copied  from  that  of  the  Kornan  empire ;  sacerdotal 
praetors,  proconsuls,  and  a  Csesar ;  developing  its  own 
jurisprudence,  establishing  its  own  magistracy,  exchanging 
the  Greek  tongue  it  had  hitherto  used  for  the  Latin,  which, 
soon  becoming  a  sacred  language,  conferred  upon  it  the 
most  singular  advantages. 

The  Greek  churches  were  of  the  nature  of  confederated 
republics ;  the  Latin  Church  instinctively  tended  to 
monarchy.  Far  from  assuming  an  attitude  of  conspicuous 
dignity,  the  primitive  bishops  of  Eome  led  a  life  of 
obscurity.  In  the  earliest  times,  the  bishops  of  Jerusalem, 
of  whom  James,  the  brother  of  our  Lord,  was  the  first,  are 
spoken  of  as  the  heads  of  the  Church,  and  so  regarded  even 
in  Rome  itself.  The  controversy  respecting 
Easter,  A.D.  109,  shows,  however,  how  soon  the  ptSn^nhe 
disposition  for  Western  supremacy  was  exhibited,  v^\y  Roman 

IT-   j.        J/L     T>-  1.          f  T>  •   •        J.-L-      A    •    j.-      Church. 

Victor,  the  Bishop  of  Rome,  requiring  the  Asiatic 
bishops  to  conform  to  the  view  of  his  Church  respecting 
the  time  at  which  the  festival  of  Easter  should  be  observed, 
and  being  resisted  therein  by  Poly  crates,  the  Bishop  of 
Ephesus,  on  behalf  of  the  Eastern  churches,  the  feud  con- 
tinuing until  the  determination  of  the  Council  of  Nicea. 
It  was  not  in  Asia  alone  that  the  growth  of  Roman 
supremacy  was  resisted.  There  is  no  difficulty  in  select- 
ing from  ecclesiastical  history  proofs  of  the  same  feeling  in 
many  other  quarters.  Thus,  when  the  disciples  of  Mon- 
tanus,  the  Phrygian,  who  pretended  to  be  the  Paraclete, 
had  converted  to  their  doctrines  and  austerities  the  Bishop 
of  Rome  and  Tertullian  the  Carthaginian,  on  the  former 
backsliding  from  that  faith,  the  latter  denounced  him  as  a 
Patripassian  heretic.  Yet,  for  the  most  part,  a  good 
understanding  obtained  not  only  between  Rome  and 
Carthage,  but  also  among  the  Gallic  and  Spanish  churches, 
who  looked  upon  Rome  as  conspicuous  and  illustrious, 
though  as  no  more  than  equal  to  themselves.  At  the 
Council  of  Carthage  St.  Cyprian  said,  "  None  of  us  ought  to 
set  himself  up  as  a  bishop  of  bishops,  or  pretend  tyrannically 


292  THE  EUROPEAN   AGE  OF  INQUIRY.  [CII.  IX, 

to  restrain  his  colleagues,  because  each  bishop  has  a 
liberty  and  power  to  act  as  he  thinks  fit,  and  can  no  more 
be  judged  by  another  bishop  than  he  can  judge  another. 
But  we  must  all  wait  for  the  judgment  of  Jesus  Christ,  to 
whom  alone  belongs  the  power  to  set  us  over  the  Church, 
and  to  judge  of  our  actions." 

Rome  by  degrees  emerged  from  this  equality,  not  by 

the  splendid  talents  of  any  illustrious  man,  for  among  her 

early  bishops  none  rose  above  mediocrity,  but 

Its  gradual  _ft      ~        r  ,  ,.,.      •>  ...  ,,  J  f 

increase  in  partly  from  her  political  position,  partly  from 
influence*1  ^e  great  wealth  she  soon  accumulated,  and 
partly  from  the  policy  she  happened  to  follow. 
Her  bishop  was  not  present  at  the  Council  of  Nicea, 
A.D.  325,  nor  at  that  of  Sardica,  A.D.  345  ;  perhaps  on  these 
occasions,  as  on  others  of  a  like  kind  subsequently,  the 
immediate  motive  of  his  standing  aloof  was  the  fear  that 
he  might  not  receive  the  presidency.  Soon,  however,  was 
discerned  the  advantage  of  the  system  of  appearing  by 
representatives.  Such  an  attitude,  moreover,  offered  the 
opportunity  of  frequently  holding  the  balance  of  power  in 
the  fierce  conflicts  that  soon  arose,  made  Rome  a  retreat 
for  the  discomfited  ecclesiastic,  and  her  bishop,  ap- 
parently, an  elevated  and  unbiased  arbiter  on  his  case. 
It  was  thus  that  Athanasius,  in  his  contests  with  the 
emperor,  found  a  refuge  and  protector.  With  this  elevated 
position  in  the  esteem  of  strangers  came  also  domestic 
dignity.  The  prodigal  gifts  of  the  rich  Roman  ladies  had 
already  made  the  bishopric  to  be  sought  after  by  those 
who  esteem  the  ease  and  luxuries  of  life,  as  well  as  by  the 
ambitious.  Fierce  contests  arose  on  the  occurrence  of 
vacancies.  At  the  election  of  Damasus,  one  hundred  and 
thirty  of  the  slain  lay  in  the  basilica  of  Sisinnius :  the 
competitors  had  called  in  the  aid  of  a  rabble  of  gladiators, 
charioteers,  and  other  ruffians;  nor  could  the  riots  be 
ended  except  by  the  intervention  of  the  imperial  troops. 

It  was  none  too  soon  that  Jerome  introduced  the  monastic 
and  early  system  at  Komo — there  was  need  of  a  change  to 
corruptions,  austerity ;  none  too  soon  that  legacy-hunting  on 
the  part  of  the  clergy  was  prohibited  by  law — it  had 
become  a  public  scandal ;  .  none  too  soon  that  Jerome 
struggled  for  tho  patronage  of  the  rich  Roman  women; 


CH.  IX.]      THE  EUROPEAN  AGE  OF  INQUIRY.          293 

none  too  soon  that  this  stern  fanatic  denounced  the  im- 
morality of  the  Roman  clergy,  when  even  the  Bishop 
Damasus  himself  was  involved  in  a  charge  of  adultery. 
It  became  clear,  if  the  clergy  would  hold  their  ground  in 
public  estimation  against  their  antagonists  the  monks, 
that  celibacy  must  be  insisted  on.  The  doctrine  of  the 
pre-eminent  value  of  virginity  was  steadily  making  pro- 
gress ;  but  it  cost  many  years  of  struggle  before  the  monks 
carried  their  point,  and  the  celibacy  of  the  clergy  became 
compulsory. 

It  had  long  been  seen  by  those  who  hoped  for  Roman 
supremacy  that  there  was  a  necessity  for  the  Ncccssl,y  for 
establishment  of  a  definite  and  ascertained  doc-  an  apostolic 

.     •  •  j        /»  ••  i     i  •         1 1'  ';r  1 

trine — a  necessity  tor  recognizing  some  apostolic 

man,  who  might  be  the  representative  of  a  criterion  of 

truth.     The  Eastern  system  of  deciding  by  councils  was 

in  its  nature   uncertain.      The  councils  themselves  had 

no  ascertained  organization.     Experience  had  shown  that 

they  were  too  much  under  the  control  of  the  court  at 

Constantinople. 

This  tendency  to  accept  the  republican  decisions  of 
councils  in  the  East,  and  monarchical  ones  by  a  Necessity  for 
supreme  pontiff  in  the  West,  in  reality,  however,  Councils  or  a 
depended  on  a  common  sentiment  entertained  pOB^  ' 
by  reflecting  men  everywhere.  Something  must  be  done 
to  check  the  anarchy  of  opinion. 

To  show  how  this  tendency  was  satisfied,  it  will  be 
sufficient  to  select,  out  of  the  numberless  controversies  of 
the  times,  a  few  leading  ones.  A  clear  light  is  thrown 
upon  the  matter  by  the  history  of  the  Pelagian,  Nestorian, 
and  Eutychian  heresies.  Their  chronological  period  is  from 
about  A.D.  400  to  A.D.  450. 

Pelagius  was  the  assumed  name  of  a  British  monk,  who, 
about  the  first  of  those  dates,  passed  through  The  Pelagian 
Western  Europe  and  Northern  Africa,  teaching  controversy. 
the  doctrines  that  Adam  was  by  nature  mortal,  and  that, 
if  he  had  not  sinned,  he  nevertheless  would  have  died ; 
that  the  consequences  of  his  sin  were  confined  to  himself, 
and  did  not  affect  his  posterity ;  that  new-born  infants 
are  in  the  same  condition  as  Adam  before  his  fall ;  that  we 
are  at  birth  as  pure  as  he  was ;  that  we  sin  by  our  own 


294  THE  EUROPEAN  AGE  OF  INQUIRY.  [CH.  IX. 

free  will,  and  in  the  same  manner  may  reform,  and  thereby 
work  out  our  own  salvation  ;  that  the  grace  of  God  is 
given  according  to  our  merits.  He  was  repelled  from 
Africa  by  the  influence  of  St.  Augustine,  and  denounced 
in  Palestine  from  the  cell  of  Jerome.  He  specially  insisted 
on  this,  that  it  is  not  the  mere  act  of  baptizing  by  water 
that  washes  away  sin,  sin  can  only  be  removed  by  good 
works.  Infants  are  baptized  before  it  is  possible  that  they 
could  have  sinned.  On  the  contrary,  Augustine 
Peiagianism  resisted  these  doctrines,  resting  himself  on  the 
onpapai^  words  of  Scripture  that  baptism  is  for  the  re- 
mission of  sins.  The  case  of  children  compelled 
that  father  to  introduce  the  doctrine  of  original  sin  as 
derived  from  Adam,  notwithstanding  the  dreadful  con- 
sequences if  they  die  unbaptized.  In  like  manner  also 
followed  the  doctrines  of  predestination,  grace,  atonement. 
Summoned  before  a  synod  at  Diospolis,  Pelagius  was  un- 
expectedly acquitted  of  heresy — an  extraordinary  decision, 
which  brought  Africa  and  the  East  into  conflict.  Under 
these  circumstances,  perhaps  without  a  clear  foresight  of  the 
issue,  the  matter  was  referred  to  Rome  as  arbiter  or  judge. 
In  his  decision,  Innocent  I.,  magnifying  the  dignity  of  the 
Roman  see  and  the  advantage  of  such  a  supreme  tribunal, 
determined  in  favour  of  the  African  bishops.  But  scarcely 
had  he  done  this  when  he  died,  and  his  successor,  Zosimus, 
annulled  his  judgment,  and  declared  the  opinions  of 
Pelagius  to  be  orthodox.  Carthago  now  put 
toe'pcSigiaii*  herself  in  an  attitude  of  resistance.  There  was 
question  by  danger  of  a  metaphysical  or  theological  Punic 
war.  Meantime  the  wily  Africans  quietly  pro- 
cured from  the  emperor  an  edict  denouncing  Pelagius  as  a 
heretic.  Through  the  influence  of  Count  Valerius  tho 
faith  of  Europe  was  settled  ;  the  heresiarchs  and  their 
accomplices  were  condemned  to  exile  and  forfeiture  of 
their  estates;  the  contested  doctrine  that  Adam  was 
created  without  any  liability  to  death  was  established  by 
law  ;  to  deny  it  v/as  a  state  crime.  Thus  it  appears  that 
the  vacillating  papacy  was  not  yet  strong  enough  to  exalt 
itself  above  its  equals,  and  the  orthodoxy  of  Europe  was 
for  ever  determined  by  an  obscure  court  intrigue. 

Scarcely  was  the  Pelagian  controversy  disposed  of  when 


CH.  IX.}       THE  EUROPEAN  AGE  OF  INQUIRY.  295 

a  new  heresy  appeared.  Nestorius,  the  Bishop  of  Antioch, 
attempted  to  distinguish  between  the  divine  The  Nestonan 
and  human  nature  of  Christ ;  he  considered  controversy, 
that  they  had  become  too  much  confounded,  and  that  "  the 
God  "  ought  to  be  kept  separate  from  "  the  Man."  Hence 
it  followed  that  the  Virgin  Mary  should  not  be  regarded 
as  the  "Mother  of  God,"  but  only  the  "Mother  of  Christ 
— the  God-man."  Called  by  the  Emperor  Theodosius  the 
Younger  to  the  episcopate  of  Constantinople,  A.D.  427, 
Nestorius  was  very  quickly  plunged  by  the  intrigues  of  a 
disappointed  faction  of  that  city  into  disputes  with  the 
populace. 

Let  us  hear  the  Bishop  of  Constantinople  himself;  he  is 
preaching  in  the  great  metropolitan  church,  me  doctrines 
setting  forth,  with  all  the  eloqtience  of  which  of  Nestorius. 
language  is  capable,  the  attributes  of  the  illimitable,  the 
everlasting,  the  Almighty  God.  "  And  can  this  God  have 
a  mother  ?  The  heathen  notion  of  a  god  born  of  a  mortal 
mother  is  directly  confuted  by  St.  Paul,  who  declares  the 
Lord  to  be  without  father  and  without  mother.  Could 
a  creature  bear  the  uncreated  ?  "  He  thus  insisted  that 
what  was  born  of  M!ary  was  human,  and  the  divine  was 
added  afterwards.  At  once  the  monks  raised  a  riot  in  the 
city,  and  Cyril,  the  Bishop  of  Alexandria,  espoused  their 
cause. 

Beneath  the  outraged  orthodoxy  of  Cyril  lay  an  ill- 
concealed  motive,  the  desire  of  the  Bishop  of  Alexandria 
to  humble  the  Bishop  of  Constantinople.  The  uproar 
commenced  with  sermons,  epistles,  addresses.  Instigated 
by  the  monks  of  Alexandria,  the  monks  of  Constantinople 
took  up  arms  in  behalf  of  "  the  Mother  of  God."  Again 
we  remark  the  eminent  position  of  Koine.  Both  parties 
turn  to  her  as  an  arbiter.  Pope  Celestine  assembles  a 
synod.  The  Bishop  of  Constantinople  is  ordered  by  the 
Bishop  of  Rome  to  recant,  or  hold  himself  under  excom- 
munication. Italian  supremacy  is  emerging  through 
Oriental  disputes,  yet  not  without  a  struggle.  Eelying 
on  his  influence  at  court,  Nestorius  resists,  excommunicates 
Cyril,  and  the  emperor  summons  a  council  to  meet  at 
Ephesus. 

To  that  council  Nestorius  repaired,  with  sixteen  bishops 


296  THE   EUROPEAN   AGE  OF  INQUIRY.  [CH.  IX. 

and  some  of  the  city  populace.  Cyril  collected  fifty, 
together  with  a  rabble  of  sailors,  bath-men,  and  women 
of  the  baser  sort.  The  imperial  commissioner  with  his 
troops  with  difficulty  repressed  the  tumult  of  the  assembly. 
The  rescript  was  fraudulently  read  before  the 
NcstorUnism  arrival  of  the  Syrian  bishops.  In  one  day  the 
by  the  Afri-  matter  was  completed ;  the  Virgin's  party 
triumphed,  and  Nestorius  was  deposed.  On 
the  arrival  of  the  Syrian  ecclesiastics,  a  meeting  of  protest 
was  held  by  them.  A  riot,  with  much  bloodshed,  occurred 
in  the  Cathedral  of  St.  John.  The  emperor  was  again 
compelled  to  interfere ;  he  ordered  eight  deputies  from 
each  party  to  meet  him  at  Chalcedoii.  In  the  meantime 
court  intrigues  decided  the  matter.  The  emperor's  sister 
was  in  after  times  celebrated  by  the  party  of  Cyril  as 
Worship  of  having  been  the  cause  of  the  discomfiture  of 
the  virgin  Nestorius :  "  the  Holy  Virgin  of  the  court  of 
Heaven  had  found  an  ally  of  her  own  sex  in  the 
holy  virgin  of  the  emperor's  court."  But  there  were  also 
other  very  efficient  auxiliaries.  In  the  treasury  of  the 
chief  eunuch,  which  some  time  after  there  was  occasion  to 
open,  was  discovered  an  acknowledgment  of  many  pounds 
of  gold  received  by  him  from  Cyril,  through  Paul,  his 
sister's  son.  Nestorius  was  abandoned  by  the  court,  and 
eventually  exiled  to  an  Egyptian  oasis.  An  edifying 
legend  relates  that  his  blasphemous  tongue  was  devoured 
by  worms,  and  that  from  the  heats  of  an  Egyptian  desert 
he  escaped  only  into  the  hotter  torments  of  Hell. 

So,  again,  in  the  affair  of  Nestorius  as  in  that  of 
Pelagius,  Africa  triumphed,  and  the  supremacy  of  Home, 
her  ally  or  confederate,  was  becoming  more  and  more 
distinct. 

A  very  important  result  in  this  gradual  evolution  of 
Roman  supremacy  arose  from  the  aft'air  of  Eutyches,  the 
TbeEut  Archimandrite  of  a  convent  of  monks  at  Con- 
chum  contro-  stantinople.  He  had  distinguished  himself  as 
rer*7*  a  leader  in  the  riots  occurring  at  the  time  of 

Nestorius  and  in  other  subsequent  troubles.  Accused 
before  a  synod  held  in  Constantinople  of  denying  the  two 
natures  of  Christ,  of  saying  that  if  there  be  two  natures 
there  must  be  two  Sons,  Eutyches  was  convicted,  and 


GH.  IX.]       THE  EUROPEAN  AGE  OF  INQUIRY.         297 

sentence  of  excommunica'tion  passed  upon  him.  This 
was,  however,  only  the  ostensible  cause  of  his  condem- 
nation ;  the  true  motive  was  connected  with  a  court 
intrigue.  The  chief  eunuch,  who  was  his  godson,  was 
occupied  in  a  double  movement  to  elevate  Eutyches  to 
the  see  of  Constantinople,  and  to  destroy  the  authority  of 
Pulcheria,  the  emperor's  sister,  by  Eudocia,  the  emperor's 
wife.  On  his  condemnation,  Eutyches  appealed  to  the 
emperor,  who  summoned,  at  the  instigation  of  the  eunuch, 
a  council  to  meet  at  Ephesus.  This  was  the  celebrated 
"  Eobber  Synod,"  as  it  was  called.  It  pronounced  in 
favour  of  the  orthodoxy  of  Eutyches,  and  ordered  his  restor- 
ation, deposing  the  Bishop  of  Constantinople,  Flavianus, 
who  was  his  rival,  and  at  the  synod  had  been  his  judge 
and  also  Eusebius,  who  had  been  his  accuser.  A  riot  ensued, 
in  which  the  Bishop  of  Constantinople  was  murdered 
by  the  Bishop  of  Alexandria  and  one  Barsumas,  who 
beat  him  with  their  fists  amid  cries  of  "  Kill  him  !  kUl 
him ! "  The  Italian  legates  made  their  escape  from 
the  uproar  with  difficulty. 

The  success  of  these  movements  was  mainly  due  to 
Dioscorus,  the  Bishop  of  Alexandria,  who  thus  accom- 
plished the  overthrow  of  his  rivals  of  Antioch  and  Con- 
stantinople. An  imperial  edict  gave  force  to  the  deter- 
mination of  the  council.  At  this  point  the  Bishop  of  Home 
intervened,  refusing  to  acknowledge  the  proceedings.  It 
was  well  that  Alexandria  and  Constantinople  should  be 
perpetually  struggling,  but  it  was  not  well  that  either 
should  become  paramount.  Dioscorus  thereupon  broke  off 
communion  with  him.  Rome  and  Alexandria  were  at  issue. 

In  a  fortunate  moment  the  emperor  died ;  his  sister,  the 
orthodox  Pulcheria,  the  friend  of  Leo,  married  Marcian, 
and  made  him  emperor.  A  council  was  summoned  at 
Chalcedon.  Leo  wished  it  to  be  in  Italy,  where  no  one 
could  have  disputed  his  presidency.  As  it  was,  he  fell 
back  on  the  ancient  policy,  and  appeared  by  Another 
representatives.  Dioscorus  was  overthrown,  and  advance  of 
sentence  pronounced  against  him,  in  behalf  of  po°wr  through 
the  council,  by  one  of  the  representatives  of  Leo.  Eutyci»wi'sm. 
It  set  forth  that  "  Leo,  therefore,  by  their  voice,  and  with 
the  authority  of  the  council,  in  the  name  of  the  Apostle 

14* 


298          THE  EUROPEAN  AGE  OF  INQUIRY.       [CH.  IX. 

Peter,  the  Bock  and  foundation  of  the  Church,  deposes 
Dioscorus  from  his  episcopal  dignity,  and  excludes  him 
from  all  Christian  rites  and  privileges." 

But,  perhaps  that  no  permanent  advantage  might  accrue 
to  Rome  from  the  eminent  position  she  was  attaining  in 
these  transactions,  when  most  of  the  prelates  had  left  the 
The  rivalry  council,  a  few,  who  were  chiefly  of  the  diocese  of 
of  constant!-  Constantinople,  passed,  among  other  canons,  one 
nopie.  £o  ^e  eg-ec£  that  the  supremacy  of  the  Roman 

see  was  not  in  right  of  its  descent  from  St.  Peter,  but 
because  it  was  the  bishopric  of  an  imperial  city.  It 
assigned,  therefore,  to  the  Bishop  of  Constantinople  equal 
civil  dignity  and  ecclesiastical  authority.  Rome  ever 
refused  to  recognize  the  validity  of  this  canon. 

In  these  contests  of  Rome,  Constantinople,  and  Alex- 
andria for  supremacy  —  for,  after  all,  they  were  nothing 
more  than  the  rivalries  of  ambitious  placemen  for  power 
Rivalries  of  —  *ne  Roman  bishop  uniformly  came  forth  the 
the  three  gainer.  And  it  is  to  be  remarked  that  he 
great  bishops,  Deserved  to  be  so  ;  bis  course  was  always  dig- 
nified, often  noble;  theirs  exhibited  a  reckless  scramble 
for  influence,  an  unscrupulous  resort  to  bribery,  court 
intrigue,  murder. 

Thus  the  want  of  a  criterion  of  truth,  and  a  determina- 
tion to  arrest  a  spirit  of  inquiry  that  had  become 
troublesome,  led  to  the  introduction  of  councils,  by  which, 
in  an  authoritative  manner,  theological  questions  might 
be  settled.  But  it  is  to  be  observed  that  these  councils 
did  not  accredit  themselves  by  the  coincidence  of  their 
decisions  on  successive  occasions,  since  they  often  con- 
Nature  of  ec-  tradicted  one  another;  nor  did  they  sustain 
those  decisions  only  with  a  moral  influence 


arising  from  the  understanding  of  man,  en- 
lightened by  their  investigations  and  conclusions.  Their 
human  character  is  clearly  shown  by  the  necessity  under 
which  they  laboured  of  enforcing  their  arbitrary  con- 
clusions by  the  support  of  the  civil  power.  The  same 
necessity  which,  in  the  monarchical  East,  led  thus  to  the 
republican  form  of  a  council,  led  in  the  democratic  West 
to  the  development  of  the  autocratic  papal  pow^r  :  but 
in  both  it  was  found  that  the  final  authority  thus 


CH.  IX.]       THE  EUROPEAN  AGE  OF  INQUIRY.          299 

appealed  to  had  no  innate  or  divinely  derived  energy.  It 
was  altogether  helpless  except  by  the  aid  of  military  or 
civil  compulsion  against  any  one  disposed  to  resist  it. 

No  other  opinion  could  be  entertained  of  the  character 
of  these  assemblages,  by  men  of  practical  ability  who  had 
been  concerned  in  their  transactions.  Gregory  of  Nazi- 
anzen,  one  of  the  most  pious  and  able  men  of  his  age,  and 
one  who,  during  a  part  of  its  sittings,  was  president  of  the 
Council  of  Constantinople,  A.D.  3 81,  refused  subsequently  to 
attend  any  more,  saying  that  he  had  never  known  an 
assembly  of  bishops  terminate  well ;  that,  instead  of 
removing  evils,  they  only  increased  them,  and  that  their 
strifes  and  lust  of  power  were  not  to  be  described.  A 
thousand  years  later,  JSneas  Sylvius,  Pope  Pius  II.,  speak- 
ing of  another  council,  observes  that  it  was  not  so  much 
directed  by  the  Holy  Ghost  as  by  the  passions  of  men. 

Notwithstanding  the  contradictions  and  opposition 
they  so  frequently  exhibit,  there  may  be  dis-  Pr  rr  . 
cerned  in  the  decisions  of  these  bodies  the  variation  ot 
traces  of  an  affiliation  indicating  the  con-  {j^jJt 
tinuous  progression  of  thought.  Thus,  of  the  manifested  by 
four  oecumenical  councils  that  were  concerned  tl 
with  the  facts  spoken  of  in  the  preceding  pages,  that  of 
Nicea  determined  the  Son  to  be  of  the  same  substance 
with  the  Father;  that  of  Constantinople,  that  the  Son 
and  Holy  Spirit  are  equal  to  the  Father ;  that  of  Ephesus, 
that  the  two  natures  of  Christ  make  but  one  person  ;  and 
that  of  Chalcedon,  that  these  natures  remain  two, 
notwithstanding  their  personal  union.  But  that  they 
failed  of  their  object  in  constituting  a  criterion  of  truth, 
is  plainly  demonstrated  by  such  simple  facts  as  that,  in 
the  fourth  century  alone,  there  were  thirteen  councils 
adverse  to  Arius,  fifteen  in  his  favour,  and  seventeen  for 
the  semi-Arians — in  all,  forty-five.  From  such  a  confusion, 
it  was  necessary  that  the  councils  themselves  must  be 
sxibordinate  to  a  higher  authority — a  higher  criterion,  able 
to  give  to  them  or  refuse  to  them  authenticity.  That  the 
source  of  power,  both  for  the  council  in  the  East  and  the 
papacy  in  the  West,  was  altogether  political,  is  proved  by 
almost  every  transaction  in  which  they  were  concerned. 
In  the  case  of  the  papacy,  this  was  well  seen  in  the 


300  THE  EUROPEAN  AGE  OF  INQUIRY.  [CH.  IX. 

contest  between  Hilary  the  Bishop  of  Aries,  and  Leo,  on 
which  occasion  an  edict  was  issued  by  the  Emperor 
Valentinian  denouncing  the  contumacy  of  Hilary,  and 
setting  forth  that  "  though  the  sentence  of  so  great  a 
pontiff  as  the  Bishop  of  Home  did  not  need 
power  sus-  imperial  confirmation,  yet  that  it  must  now 
^"ScaHorc.-  ^  understood  by  all  bishops  that  the  decrees 
of  the  apostolic  see  should  henceforth  bo  law, 
and  that  whoever  refused  to  obey  the  citation  of  the 
Roman  pontiff  should  be  compelled  to  do  so  by  the 
Moderator  of  the  province."  Herein  we  see  the  intrinsic 
nature  of  Papal  power  distinctly.  It  is  allied  with 
physical  force. 

In  the  midst  of  these  theological  disputes  occurred  that 
The  fail  of  great  event  which  I  have  designated  as  mark- 
Rome.  jng  the  close  of  the  age  of  Inquiry.  It  was 
the  fall  of  Rome. 

In  the  Eastern  empire  the  Goths  had  become  perma- 
nently settled,  having  laws  of  their  own,  a  magistracy  of 
their  own,  paying  no  taxes,  but  contributing  40,000  men 
to  the  army.  The  Visigoths  were  spreading  through 
spread  of  the  Greece,  Spain,  Italy.  In  their  devastations  of 
barbarians,  the  former  country,  they  had  spared  Athens 
for  the  sake  of  her  souvenirs.  The  Eleusinian  mysteries 
had  ceased.  From  that  day  Greece  never  saw  prosperity 
again.  Alaric  entered  Italy.  Stilicho,  the  imperial 
general,  forced  him  to  retreat.  Rhadogast  made  his 
invasion.  Stilicho  compelled  him  to  surrender  at  dis- 
cretion. The  Burgundians  and  Vandals  overflowed  Gaul ; 
the  Suevi,  Vandals,  and  Alans  overflowed  Spain.  Stilicho, 
a  man  worthy  of  the  old  days  of  the  republic,  though 
a  Goth,  was  murdered  by  the  emperor  his  master. 
Alaric  appeared  before  Rome.  It  was  (519  years  since  she 
had  felt  the  presence  of  a  foreign  enemy,  and  that  was 
Hannibal.  She  still  contained  1780  senatorial  palaces, 
Capture  and  *ke  annual  income  of  some  of  the  owners 
sack  of  Rome  of  which  was  160,000/.  The  city  was  eighteen 
inc*  miles  in  circumference,  and  contained  above 
a  million  of  people — of  people,  as  in  old  times  clamorous 
for  distributions  of  bread,  and  wine,  and  oil.  In  its 
conscious  despair,  the  apostate  city,  it  is  said,  with  the 


OH,  IX.]  THE  EUROPEAN  AGE  OF  INQUIRY.  301 

consent  of  the  pope,  offered  sacrifice  to  Jupiter,  its  re- 
pudiated, and,  as  it  now  believed,  its  offended  god. 
200,0002.,  together  with  many  costly  goods,  were  paid  as 
a  ransom.  The  barbarian  general  retired.  He  was 
insulted  by  the  emperor  from  his  fastness  at  Eavenna. 
Altercations  and  new  marches  ensued ;  and  at  last,  for  the 
third  time,  Alaric  appeared  before  Eome.  At  midnight 
on  the  24th  of  April,  A.D.  410,  eleven  hundred  and  sixty- 
three  years  from  the  foundation  of  the  city,  the  Salarian 
gate  was  opened  to  him  by  the  treachery  of  slaves  ;  there 
was  no  god  to  defend  her  in  her  dire  extremity,  and  Kome 
was  sacked  by  the  Goths. 

Has  the  Eternal  City  really  fallen !  was  the  universal 
exclamation  throughout  the  empire  when  it  became  known 
that  Alaric  had  taken  Eome.  Though  paganism  had 
been  ruined  in  a  national  sense,  the  true  Eoman  ethnical 
element  had  never  given  it  up,  but  was  dying  out  with  it, 
a  relic  of  the  population  of  the  city  still  adher- 

,      ,i  •       ,   f  •:•>  .  vt-«  a.   Accusations 

ing  to  the  ancient  iaith.  Among  this  were  not  Of  the  I'agans 
wanting  many  of  the  aristocratic  families  and  ^f""8.* the 

i  *      i          •  .    j      ii          -i-  Christians. 

philosophers,  who  imputed  the  disaster  to 
the  public  apostasy,  and  in  their  shame  and  suffering 
loudly  proclaimed  that  the  nation  was  justly  punished  for 
its  abandonment  of  the  gods  of  its  forefathers,  the  gods 
who  had  given  victory  and  empire.  It  became  necessary 
for  the  Church  to  meet  this  accusation,  which,  while  it 
was  openly  urged  by  thousands,  was  doubtless  believed  to 
be  true  by  silent,  and  timid,  and  panic-stricken  millions. 
With  the  intention  of  defending  Christianity,  St.  Augus- 
tine, one  of  the  ablest  of  the  fathers,  solemnly  devoted 
thirteen  years  of  his  life  to  the  composition  of  his  great 
work  entitled  "  The  City  of  God."  It  is  interesting  for 
us  to  remark  the  tone  of  some  of  these  replies  of  the 
Christians  to  their  pagan  adversaries. 

"  For  the  manifest  deterioration  of  Eoman  manners,  and 
for  the  impending  dissolution  of  the  state,  paganism  itself 
is  responsible.  Our  political  power  is  only  of  yesterday : 
it  is  in  no  manner  concerned  with  the  gradual  The  Chilian 
development  of  luxury  and  wickedness,  which  **&*• 
has  been  going  on  for  the  last  thousand  years.  Your 
ancestors  made  war  a  trade;  they  laid  under  tribute  and 


302  THE   EUROPEAN   AGE  OF   INQUIRY.  [CH.  IX, 

enslaved  the  adjacent  nations,  but  were  not  profusion, 
extravagance,  dissipation,  the  necessary  consequences  ot 
conquest  ?  was  not  Roman  idleness  the  inevitable  result 
of  the  filling  of  Italy  with  slaves  ?  Every  hour  rendered 
wider  that  bottomless  gulf  which  separates  immense  riches 
from  abject  poverty.  Did  not  the  middle  class,  in  which 
reside  the  virtue  and  strength  of  a  nation,  disappear,  and 
aristocratic  families  remain  in  Rome,  whoso  estates  in 
Syria  or  Spain,  Gaul  or  Africa,  equalled,  nay,  even  ex- 
ceeded in  extent  and  revenue  illustrious  kingdoms, 
provinces  for  the  annexation  of  which  the  republic  of  old 
had  decreed  triumphs?  Was  there  not  in  the  streets  a 
profligate  rabble  living  in  total  idleness,  fed  and  amused 
at  the  expense  of  the  state  ?  We  are  not  answerable  for 
the  grinding  oppression  perpetrated  on  the  rural  popu- 
lations until  they  have  been  driven  to  despair,  their 
numbers  so  diminishing  as.  to  warn  uc  that  there  is 
danger  of  their  being  extinguished.  We  did  not  suggest 
to  the  Emperor  Trajan  to  abandon  Dacia,  and  neglect 
that  policy  which  fixed  the  boundaries  of  the  empire  at 
strong  military  posts.  We  did  not  suggest  to  Caracallato 
admit  all  sorts  of  people  to  Roman  citizenship,  nor  dis- 
locate the  population  by  a  wild  pursuit  of  civil  offices  or  the 
discharge  of  military  duties.  We  did  not  crowd  Italy 
with  slaves,  nor  make  those  miserable  men  more  degraded 
than  the  beasts  of  the  field,  compelling  them  to  labours 
which  are  the  business  of  the  brutes.  We  have  taught 
and  practised  a  very  different  doctrine.  We  did  not 
nightly  put  into  irons  the  population  of  provinces  and 
cities  reduced  to  bondage.  We  are  not  responsible  for  the 
inevitable  insurrections,  poisonings,  assassinations,  ven- 
geance. We  did  not  bring  on  that  state  of  things  in 
which  a  man  having  a  patrimony  found  it  his  best 
interest  to  abandon  it  without  compensation  and  flee.  Wo 
did  not  demoralize  the  populace  by  providing  them  food, 
games,  races,  theatres ;  we  have  been  persecuted  because 
we  would  not  set  our  feet  in  a  theatre.  We  did  not  ruin 
the  senate  and  aristocracy  by  sacrificing  everything,  even 
ourselves,  for  the  Julian  family.  We  did  not  neutralize 
the  legions  by  setting  them  to  fight  against  one  another. 
We  wore  not  the  first  to  degrade  Rome  •  Diocletian,  who 


CH.  IX.]  THE  EUROPEAN  AGE  OF  INQUIRY.  303 

persecuted  us,  gave  the  example  by  establishing  his 
residence  at  Nice-media.  As  to  the  sentiment  of  patriotism 
of  which  you  vaunt,  was  it  not  destroyed  by  your  own 
emperors  ?  When  they  had  made  Eoman  citizens  of  Gauls 
and  Egyptians,  Africans  and  Huns,  Spaniards  and  Syrians, 
how  could  they  expect  that  such  a  motley  crew  would  re- 
main true  to  the  interests  of  an  Italian  town,  and  that  town 
their  hated  oppressor.  Patriotism  depends  on  concentra- 
tion ;  it  cannot  bear  diffusion.  Something  more  than 
such  a  worldly  tie  was  wanted  to  bind  the  diverse  nations 
together ;  they  have  found  it  in  Christianity.  A  common 
language  imparts  community  of  thought  and  feeling ;  but 
what  was  to  be  expected  when  Greek  is  the  language  of 
one  half  of  the  ruling  classes,  and  Latin  of  the  other  ? 
we  say  nothing  of  the  thousand  unintelligible  forms  of 
speech  in  use  throughout  the  Eoman  world.  The  fall  of 
the  senate  preceded,  by  a  few  years,  the  origin  of  Christi- 
anity ;  you  surely  will  not  say  that  we  were  the  inciters 
of  the  usurpations  of  the  Caesars  ?  What  have  we  had  to 
do  with  the  army,  that  engine  of  violence,  which  in  ninety- 
two  years  gave  you  thirty-two  emperors  and  twenty-seven 
pretenders  to  the  throne?  We  did  not  suggest  to  tho 
Praetorian  Guards  to  put  up  the  empire  to  auction. 

"  Can  you  really  wonder  that  all  this  should  come  to  an 
end  ?  We  do  not  wonder ;  on  the  contrary,  we  thank  God 
for  it.  It  is  time  that  the  human  race  had  rest.  The 
sighing  of  the  prisoner,  the  prayer  of  the  captive,  are 
heard  at  last.  Yet  the  judgment  has  been  tempered  with 
mercy.  Had  the  pagan  Ehadogast  taken  Borne,  not  a  life 
would  have  been  spared,  no  stone  left  on  another.  The 
Christian  Alaric,  though  a  Goth,  respects  his  Christian 
brethren,  and  for  their  sakes  you  are  saved.  As  to  the 
gods,  those  daemons  in  whom  you  trust,  did  they  always 
save  you  from  calamity  ?  How  long  did  Hannibal  insult 
them  ?  Was  it  a  goose  or  a  god  that  saved  the  Capitol 
from  Brennus  ?  Where  were  the  gods  in  all  the  defeats, 
some  of  them  but  recent,  of  the  pagan  emperors  ?  It  is 
well  that  the  purple  Babylon  has  fallen,  the  harlot  who 
was  drunk  with  the  blood  of  nations. 

"  In  the  place  of  this  earthly  city,  this  vaunted  mistress, 
of  the  world,  whose  fall  closes  a  long  career  of  superstition 


304  THE  EUROPEAN  AGE   OF  INQUIRY.  fCH.  IX. 

and  sin,  there  shall  arise  "the  City  of  God."  The 
purifying  fire  of  the  barbarian  shall  remove  her  heathenish 
defilements,  and  make  her  fit  for  the  kingdom  of  Christ. 
Instead  of  a  thousand  years  of  that  night  of  crime,  to 
which  in  your  despair  you  look  back,  there  is  before  her 
the  day  of  the  millennium,  predicted  by  the  prophets  of 
old.  In  her  regenerated  walls  there  shall  be  no  taint  of 
sin,  but  righteousness  and  peace ;  no  stain  of  the  vanities 
of  the  world,  no  conflicts  of  ambition,  no  sordid  hunger 
for  gold,  no  lust  after  glory,  no  desire  for  domination, 
but  holiness  to  the  Lord." 

Of  those  who  in  such  sentiments  defended  the  cause  of 
st  Angus-  *ke  new  religi°n  St.  Augustine  was  the  chief, 
tine's -City  of  In  his  great  work,  "the  City  of  God,"  which 
may  be  regarded  as  the  ablest  specimen  of  the 
early  Christian  literature,  he  pursues  this  theme,  if  not 
in  the  language,  at  least  in  the  spirit  here  presented,  and 
through  a  copious  detail  of  many  books.  On  the  later 
Christianity  of  the  Western  churches  he  has  exerted  more 
influence  than  any  other  of  the  fathers.  To  him  is  due 
much  of  the  precision  of  our  views  on  original  sin,  total 
depravity,  grace,  predestination,  election. 

fn  his  early  years  St.  Augustine  had  led  a  frivolous  and 
evil  life,  plunging  into  all  the  dissipations  of  the  gay  city 
Life  and  °^  Carthage.  Through  the  devious  paths  of 
writings  of  st.  Manichaeism,  astrology,  and  scepticism,  he  at 
Augustine,  j^^.  arrjved  a^  the  truth.  It  was  not,  however, 
the  Fathers,  but  Cicero,  to  whom  the  good  change  was 
due ;  the  writings  of  that  great  orator  won  him  over  to  a 
love  of  wisdom,  weaning  him  from  the  pleasures  of  the 
theatre,  the  follies  of  divination  and  superstition.  From 
his  Manichaean  errors,  he  was  snatched  by  Ambrose,  the 
Bishop  of  Milan,  who  baptized  him,  together  with  his 
illegitimate  son  Adeodatus.  In  his  writings  we  may,  with- 
out difficulty,  recognize  the  vestiges  of  Magianism,  not  as 
regards  the  duality  of  God,  but  as  respects  the  division 
of  mankind— the  elect  and  lost;  the  kingdoms  of  grace 
and  perdition,  of  God  and'  the  devil ;  answering  to  the 
Oriental  ideas  of  the  rule  of  light  and  darkness.  From 
Ambrose,  St.  Augustine  learned  those  high  Trinitarian 
doctrines  which  were  soon  enforced  in  the  West. 


CH.  IX. J       THE  EUROPEAN  AGE  OK  INQUIRY.          305 

In  his  philosophical  disquisitions  on  Time,  Matter, 
Memory,  this  far-famed  writer  is,  however,  always  un- 
satisfactory, often  trivial.  His  doctrine  that  Scripture, 
as  the  word  of  God,  is  capable  of  a  manifold  meaning,  led 
him  into  many  delusions,  and  exercised,  in  subsequent 
ages,  a  most  baneful  influence  on  true  science.  Thus 
he  finds  in  the  Mosaic  account  of  the  creation  proofs  of 
the  Trinity  ;  that  the  firmament  spoken  of  therein  is  the 
type  of  God's  word ;  and  that  there  is  a  correspondence 
between  creation  itself  and  the  Church.  His  numerous 
books  have  often  been  translated,  especially  his  Confes- 
sions, a  work  that  has  delighted  and  edified  fifty  genera- 
tions, but  which  must,  after  all,  yield  the  palm,  as  a 
literary  production,  to  the  writings  of  Bunyan,  who,  like 
Augustine,  gave  himself  up  to  all  the  agony  of  unsparing 
personal  examination  and  relentless  self-condemnation, 
anatomizing  his  very  soul,  and  dragging"  forth  every  sin 
into  the  face  of  day. 

The  ecclesiastical  influence  of  St.  Augustine  has  so 
completely  eclipsed  his  political  biography,  that  but  little 
attention  has  been  given  to  his  conduct  in  the  interesting 
time  in  which  he  lived.  Sismondi  recalls  to  his  dis- 
advantage that  he  was  the  friend  of  Count  Boniface,  who 
invited  Genseric  and  his  Vandals  into  Africa ;  tho  bloody 
consequences  of  that  conspiracy  cannot  be  exaggerated. 
It  was  through  him  that  the  count's  name  has  been 
transmitted  to  posterity  without  infamy.  Bonifaco 
was  with  him  when  he  died,  at  Hippo,  August  28th, 
A.D.  440. 

"When  Eome  thus  fell  before  Alaric,  so  far  from  the  pro 
vincial    Christians  bewailing  her    misfortune,  pr0pitioU8 
they  actually   gloried  in  it.      They  critically  effector 
distinguished  between  the  downfall  of  the  purple  A 
pagan  harlot  and  the  untouched  city  of  God.  The  vengeance 
of  the  Goth  hr.d  fallen  on  the  temples,  but  the  churches 
had  been  spared.      Though  in  subsequent  and  not  very 
distant  calamities  of  the  city  these  triumphant  distinctions 
could  scarcely  be  maintained,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that 
that  catastrophe  singularly  developed  papal  power.     The 
abasement  of  the  ancient  aristocracy  brought  into  relief 
the  bishop.     It  has  been  truly  said  that,  as  Home  rose  from 


306  THE  EUROPEAN   AGE  OF  INQUIRY.  [cil.  IX. 

her  ruins,  the  bishop  was  discerned  to  be  her  most  con- 
spicuous man.  Most  opportunely,  at  this  period  Jerome 
had  completed  his  Latin  translation  of  the  Bible.  The 
Vulgate  henceforth  became  the  ecclesiastical  authority  of 
the  West.  The  influence  of  the  heathen  classics,  which 
that  austere  anchorite  had  in  early  life  admired,  but  had 
vainly  attempted  to  free  himself  from  by  unremitting 
nocturnal  flagellations,  appears  in  this  great  version.  It 
came  at  a  critical  moment  for  the  West.  In  the  politic 
non-committalisni  of  Rome,  it  was  not  expedient  that  a 
pope  should  be  an  author.  The  Vulgate  was  all  that  the 
times  required.  Henceforth  the  East  might  occupy  herself 
in  the  harmless  fabrication  of  creeds  and  of  heresies  ;  the 
West  could  develop  her  practical  talent  in  the  much  more 
important  organization  of  ecclesiastical  power. 

Doubtless  not  without  interest  will  the  reader  of  these 
pages  remark  how  closely  the  process  of  ecclesiastical  events 
resembles  that  of  civil.  In  both  there  is  an  irresistible 
tendency  to  the  concentration  of  power.  As  in  Eoman 
history  we  have  seen  a  few  families,  and,  indeed,  at  last, 
one  man  grasp  the  influence  which  in  earlier  times  was 
disseminated  among  the  people,  so  in  the  Church  the  con- 
gregations are  quickly  found  in  subordination  to  their 
bishops,  and  these,  in  their  turn,  succumbing  to  a 
perpetually  diminishing  number  of  their  compeers.  In 
Thefatcofthe  *^e  Pei'i°d  we  are  now  considering,  the  minor 
three  great  episcopates,  such  as  those  of  Jerusalem,  Antioch, 
Carthage,  had  virtually  lost  their  pristine  force, 
everything  having  converged  into  the  three  great  sees  of 
Constantinople,  Alexandria,  and  Rome.  The  history  of 
the  time  is  a  record  of  the  desperate  struggles  of  the  three 
chief  bishops  for  supremacy.  In  this  conflict  Rome 
possessed  many  advantages ;  the  two  others  were  more 
immediately  under  the  control  of  the  imperial  government, 
the  clashing  of  interests  between  them  more  frequent,  their 
rivalry  more  bitter.  The  control  of  ecclesiastical  power 
was  hence  perpetually  in  Rome,  though  she  was,  both 
politically  and  intellectually,  inferior  to  her  competitors. 
As  of  old,  there  was  a  triumvirate  in  the  world  destined 
to  concentrate  into  a  despotism.  And,  as  if  to  remind 
men  that  the  principles  involved  in  the  movements  of  tho 


CH.  IX.]  THE  EUROPEAN  AGE  OF  INQUIBY.  307 

Church  are  of  the  same  nature  as  those  involved  in  the 
movements  of  the  state,  the  resemblances  here  pointed  out 
are  sometimes  singularly  illustrated  in  trifling  details. 
The  Bishop  of  Alexandria  was  not  the  first  triumvir  who 
came  to  an  untimely  end  on  the  banks  of  the  Nile ;  the 
Roman  pontiff  was  not  the  first  who  consolidated  his  power 
by  the  aid  of  Gallic  legions. 


CHAPTER  X. 
THE  EUROPEAN  AGE  OF  FAITH. 

AGE  OP   FAITH   IN   TIIE   EAST. 

Consolidation  of  the  Byzantine  System,  or  the  Union  of  Church  and 
State. — The  consequent  Paganization  of  Religion  and  Persecution  oj 
Philosophy. 

Political  Necessity  for  the  enforcement  of  Patristicism,  or  Science  of  the 
Fatliers. — Its  peculiar  Doctrines. 

Obliteration  of  the  Vestiges  of  Greeli  Knowledge  by  Patristicism. — The 
Libraries  and  Serapion  of  Alexandria. — Destruction  of  the  latter  by 
Theodosius. — Death  of  Hypatia. — Extinction  of  Learning  in  the  East 
by  Cyril,  his  Associates  and  Successors. 

THE  policy  of  Constantino  the  Great  inevitably  tended 
to  the  paganization  of  Christianity.  An  incorporation  of 
its  pure  doctrines  with  decaying  pagan  ideas  was 
the  necessary  consequence  of  the  control  that  had  been 
attained  by  unscrupulous  politicians  and  placemen.  The 
The  age  of  faith,  thus  contaminated,  gained  a  more  general 
Faith.  an(j  ready  popular  acceptance,  but  at  the  cost  of 

a  new  lease  of  life  to  those  ideas.  So  thorough  was  the 
adulteration,  that  it  was  not  until  the  Reformation,  a  period 
of  more  than  a  thousand  years,  that  a  separation  of  the 
true  from  the  false  could  be  accomplished. 

Considering  how  many  nations  were  involved  in  these 
events,  and  the  length  of  time  over  which  they  extend,  a 
clear  treatment  of  the  subject  requires  its  subdivision.  I 
Subdivision  of  shall  therefore  speak,  1st,  of  the  Age  of  Faith  in 
the  subject.  the  East ;  2nd,  of  the  Age  of  Faith  in  the  West. 
The  former  was  closed  prematurely  by  the  Mohammedan 
conquest ;  the  latter,  after  undergoing  slow  metamorphosis, 


CH.  X,]        THE  EUROPEAN  AGE  OF  FAITH.  309 

passed    into  the   European   Age   of  Reason  during  tho 
pontificate  of  Kicholas  V. 

In  this  and  the  following  chapter  I  shall  therefore  treat 
of  the  age  of  Faith  in  the  East,  and  of  the  catastrophe  that 
closed  it.  I  shall  then  turn  to  the  Age  of  Faith  in  the 
West — a  long  but  an  instructive  story. 

The  paganization  of  religion  was  in  no  small  degree 
accomplished  by  the  influence  of  the  females  of  xhepamniza. 
the  court  of  Constantinople.  It  soon  manifested  tton  of  cims- 
all  the  essential  features  of  a  true  mythology  tlanity- 
and  hero-worship.  Helena,  the  empress-mother,  superin- 
tended the  building  of  monumental  churches  over  the  re- 
puted places  of  interest  in  the  history  of  our  Saviour — those 
of  his  birth,  his  burial,  his  ascension.  A  vast  and  ever-in- 
creasing crowd  of  converts  from  paganism,  who  had  become 
such  from  worldly  considerations,  and  still  hankered  after 
wonders  like  those  in  which  their  forefathers  had  from  time 
immemorial  believed,  lent  a  ready  ear  to  assertions  which, 
to  more  hesitating  or  better-instructed  minds,  would  have 
seemed  to  carry  imposture  on  their  very  face.  A  temple  of 
Venus,  formerly  erected  on  the  site  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre, 
being  torn  down,  there  were  discovered,  in  £>iscoveryof 
a  cavern  beneath,  three  crosses,  and  also  the  the  true  cross 
inscription  written  by  Pilate.  The  Saviour's  ai 
cross,  being  by  miracle  distinguished  from  those  of  the 
thieves,  was  divided,  a  part  being  kept  at  Jerusalem  and 
a  part  sent  to  Constantinople,  together  with  the  nails  used 
in  the  crucifixion,  which  were  also  fortunately  found. 
These  were  destined  to  adorn  the  head  of  the  emperor's 
statue  on  the  top  of  the  porphyry  pillar.  The  wood  of 
the  cross,  moreover,  displayed  a  property  of  growth,  and 
hence  furnished  an  abundant  supply  for  the  demands  of 
pilgrims,  and  an  unfailing  source  of  pecuniary  profit  to  its 
possessors.  In  the  course  of  subsequent  years  there  was 
accumulated  in  the  various  churches  of  Europe,  from  this 
particular  relic,  a  sufficiency  to  have  constructed  many 
hundred  crosses.  The  age  that  could  accept  such  a  prodigy, 
of  course  found  no  difficulty  in  the  vision  of  Constantino 
and  the  story  of  the  Labarum. 

Such  was    the  tendency  of   the  times  to  adulterate 


810  THE  EUROPEAN    A.GE  OF   FAITH.  [dl.  X. 

Christianity  with  the  spirit  of  paganism,  partly  to  con- 
ciliate the  prejudices  of  worldly  converts,  partly 

Political  *-  ..."  .      '  Y 

causes  of  in  the  hope  of  securing  its  more  rapid  spread, 
paganization.  rpj^^  ig  ft  soiemnity  in  the  truthful  accusation 
which  Faustus  makes  to  Augustine:  "  You  have  substituted 
your  agapae  for  the  sacrifices  of  the  pagans ;  for  their  idols 
your  martyrs,  whom  you  serve  with  the  very  $ame  honours. 
You  appease  the  shades  of  the  dead  with  wine  and  feasts ; 
you  celebrate  the  solemn  festivals  of  the  Gentiles,  their 
calends  and  their  solstices  ;  and  as  to  their  manners,  those 
you  have  retained  without  any  alteration.  Nothing  dis- 
tinguishes you  from  the  pagans  except  that  you  hold  your 
assemblies  apart  from  them." 

As  we  have  seen  in  the  last  chapter,  the  course  of 
political  affairs  had  detached  the  power  of  the  state  from 
the  philosophical  and  polytheistic  parties.  Joined  to  the 
new  movement,  it  was  not  long  before  it  gave  significant 
proofs  of  the  sincerity  of  its  friendship  by  commencing  an 

active  persecution  of  the  remnant  of  philosophy. 
tionao'fVfaTh  It  is  to  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  direction  of 
andpiiiio-  the  proselytism,  which  was  thus  leading  to 

important  results,  was  from  below  upward 
through  society.  As  to  philosophy,  its  action  had  been 
in  the  other  direction ;  ita  depository  in  the  few  enlight- 
ened, in  the  few  educated  ;  its  course,  socially,  from  above 
downward.  Under  these  circumstances  it  was  obvious 
enough  that  the  prejudices  of  the  igno:ant  populace  would 
find,  in  the  end,  a  full  expression ;  that  learning  would 
have  no  consideration  shown  to  it,  or  would  be  denounced  as 
mere  magic ;  that  philosophy  would  be  looked  upon  as  a 
vain,  and  therefore  sinful  pursuit.  When  once  a  political 
aspirant  has  bidden  with  the  multitude  for  power,  and 
still  depends  on  their  pleasure  for  effective  support,  it  is 
no  easy  thing  to  refuse  their  wishes  or  hold  back  from 

their  demands.  Even  Constantino  himself  felt 
resist  their™8  the  pressure  of  the  influence  to  which  he  was 
ecclesiastical  allied,  and  was  compelled  to  surrender  his  friend 

Sopater,  the  philosopher,  who  was  accused  of 
binding  the  winds  in  an  adverse  quarter  by  the  influence 
of  magic,  so  that  the  corn-ships  could  not  reach  Constan- 
tinople ;  and  the  emperor  was  obliged  to  give  orders  for 


CII.  X.]  THE  EUROPEAN  AGE  OF   FAITH.  311 

his  decapitation  to  satisfy  the  clamours  in  the  theatre. 
Not  that  such  requisitions  were  submitted  to  without  a 
struggle,  or  that  succeeding  sovereigns  were  willing  to 
make  their  dignity  tacitly  subordinate  to  ecclesiastical 
domination.  It  was  the  aim  of  Constantine  to  make  theo- 
logy a  branch  of  politics ;  it  was  the  hope  of  every  bishop 
in  the  empire  to  make  politics  a  branch  of  theology. 
Already,  however,  it  was  apparent  that  the  ecclesiastical 
party  would,  in  the  end,  get  the  upper  hand,  and  that  the 
reluctance  of  some  of  the  emperors  to  obey  its  behests 
was  merely  the  revolt  of  individual  minds,  and  therefore 
ephemeral  in  its  nature,  and  that  the  popular  wishes 
would  be  abundantly  gratified  as  soon  as  emperors  arose 
who  not  merely,  like  Constantine,  availed  themselves  of 
Christianity,  but  absolutely  and  sincerely  adopted  it. 

Julian,  by  his  brief  but  ineffectual  attempt  to  restore 
paganism,  scarcely  restrained  for  a  moment  the  course  of 
the  new  doctrines  now  strengthening  themselves  The  Emperor 
continually  in  public  estimation  by  incorporating  J"lian- 
ideas   borrowed  from  paganism.     Through   the  reign  of 
Valentinian,  who  was  a  Nicenist,  and  of  Valens,  who  was 
an  Arian,  things  went  on  almost  as  if  the  episode  of  Julian 
had  never  occurred.     The  ancient  gods,  whose  existence 
no  one  seems  ever  to  have  denied,  were  now  thoroughly 
identified  with  daemons ;  their  worship  was  stigmatized  as 
the  practice  of  magic.     Against  this  crime,  regarded  by 
the  laws  as  equal  to  treason,  a  violent  persecu-  Persecutlon8 
tion  arose.     Persons  resorting  to  Rome  for  the  ofhissuc- 
purposes  of  study  were  forbidden  to  remain  there  M 
after  they  were  twenty-one  years  of  age.     The  force  of 
this   persecution   fell   practically  iipon   the   old  religion, 
though  nominally  directed  against  the  black  art,  for  the 
primary  function  of  paganism  was  to  foretell  future  events 
in  this  world,  and  hence  its  connexion  with  divination 
and  its  punishment  as  magic. 

But  the  persecution,  though  directed  at  paganism,  struck 
also  at  what  remained  of  philosophy.     A  great  party  had 
attained  to   power  under  circumstances  which  Necessit  of 
compelled  it  to  enforce  the  principle  on  which  learning  to 
it  was  originally  founded.     That  principle  was  lhe  bisbops' 
the  exaction  of  unhesitating  belief,  which,  though  it  will 


312  THE  EUROPEAN  AGE  OF  FAITH.  [CH.  X. 

answer  very  well  for  the  humbler  and  more  numerous  class 
of  men,  is  unsuited  for  those  of  a  higher  intellectual  grade. 
The  policy  of  Constantino  had  opened  a  career  in  the  state, 
through  the  Church,  for  men  of  the  lowest  rank.  Many 
of  such  had  already  attained  to  the  highest  dignities.  A 
burning  zeal  rather  than  the  possession  of  profound  learn- 
ing animated  them.  But  eminent  position  once  attained> 
none  stood  more  in  need  of  the  appearance  of  wisdom. 
Under  such  circumstances,  they  were  tempted  to  set  up 
their  own  notions  as  final  and  unimpeachable  truth,  and 
to  denounce  as  magic,  or  the  sinful  pursuit  of  vain  trifling, 
all  the  learning  that  stood  in  the  way.  In  this  the  hand 
of  the  civil  power  assisted.  It  was  intended  to  cut  off 
every  philosopher.  Every  manuscript  that  could  be  seized 
was  forthwith  burned.  Throughout  the  East,  men  in 
terror  destroyed  their  libraries,  for  fear  that  some  unfor- 
tunate sentence  contained  in  any  of  the  books  should 
involve  them  and  their  families  in  destruction.  The  uni- 
versal opinion  was  that  it  was  right  to  compel  men  to 
Growth  of  believe  what  the  majority  of  society  had  now 
biRotryand  accepted  as  the  truth,  and,  if  they  refused,  it 
ion-  was  right  to  punish  them.  No  one  in  the 
dominating  party  was  heard  to  raise  his  voice  in  behalf 
of  intellectual  liberty.  The  mystery  of  things  above 
reason  was  held  to  be  the  very  cause  that  they  should  be 
accepted  by  Faith;  a  singular  merit  was  supposed  to 
appertain  to  that  mental  condition  in  which  belief  precedes 
understanding. 

The  death-blow  to  paganism  was  given  by  the  Emperor 
Theodosius,  a  Spaniard,  who,  from  the  services  he  rendered 
Fanaticism  of  in  this  particular,  has  been  rewarded  with  the 
T  bcodosius.  title  of  "  The  Great."  From  making  the  practice 
of  magic  and  the  inspection  of  the  entrails  of  animals 
capital  offences,  he  proceeded  to  prohibit  sacrifices,  A.I>.  391, 
and  even  the  entering  of  temples.  He  alienated  the 
revenues  of  many  temples,  confiscated  the  estates  of  others, 
some  he  demolished.  The  vestal  virgins  he  dismissed,  and 
any  house  profaned  by  incense  he  declared  forfeited  to  the 
imperial  exchequer.  When  once  the  property  of  a  religious 
establishment  has  been  irrevocably  taken  away,  it  is 
needless  to  declare  its  worship  a  capital  crime. 


CH.  X.]  THE   EUROPEAN   AGE   OF   FAITH.  313 

But  not  only  did  the  government  thus  constitute  itself  a 
thorough  auxiliary  of  the  new  religion ;  it  also  tried  to 
secure  it  from  its  own  dissensions.  Apostates  were  deprived 
of  the  right  of  bequeathing  their  own  property.  Inquisitors 
of  faith  were  established;  they  were  at  once  spies  and 
judges,  the  prototypes  of  the  most  fearful  tribunal  of  modern 
times.  Theodosius,  to  whom  the  carrying  into  effect  of 
these  measures  was  due,  found  it,  however,  more  expedient 
for  himself  to  institute  living  emblems  of  his  personal  faith 
than  to  rely  on  any  ambiguous  creed.  He  therefore  sen- 
tenced all  those  to  be  deprived  of  civil  rights,  and  to  be 
driven  into  exile,  who  did  not  accord  with  the  belief  of 
Damasus,  the  Bishop  of  Eome,  and  Peter,  the  Bishop  of 
Alexandria.  Those  who  presumed  to  celebrate  Easter  on 
the  same  day  as  the  Jews  he  condemned  to  death.  "  We 
will,"  says  he,  in  his  edict,  "  that  all  who  embrace  this 
creed  be  called  catholic  Christians  " — the  rest  are  heretics. 

Impartial  history  is  obliged  to  impute  the  origin  of  these 
tyrannical  and  scandalous  acts  of  the  civil  power  to  the 
influence  of  the  clergy,  and  to  hold  them  respon- 

•i_i     £       -i/u  •  riiv  -IA      f  '  Responsi- 

sible  for  the  crimes.  I  he  guilt  ot  impure,  un-  biiityofthe 
scrupulous  women,  eunuchs,  parasites,  violent  £J5gyin 
soldiers  in  possession  of  absolute  power,  lies  at 
their  door.  Yet  human  nature  can  never,  in  any  condition 
of  affairs,  be  altogether  debased.  Though  the  system 
under  which  men  were  living  pushed  them  forward  to 
these  iniquities,  the  individual  sense  of  right  and  wrong 
sometimes  vindicated  itself.  In  these  pages  we  shall  again 
and  again  meet  this  personal  revolt  against  the  indefensible 
consequences  of  system.  It  was  thus  that  there  were 
bishops  who  openly  intervened  between  the  victim  and 
his  oppressor,  who  took  the  treasures  of  the  Church  to 
redeem  slaves  from  captivity.  For  this  a  future  age  will 
perhaps  excuse  Ambrose,  the  Archbishop  of  Milan,  the 
impostures  ho  practised,  remembering  that,  fane  to  face, 
he  held  Theodosius  the  Great  to  accountability  for  the 
massacre  of  seven  thousand  persons,  whom,  in  a  fit  of 
vengeance,  he  had  murdered  in  the  circus  of  Massacre  at 
Thessalonica,  A.T>.  390,  and  inexorably  compelled  Thc8sai...mca. 
the  imperial  culprit,  to  whom  he  and  all  his  party  were 
under  such  obligations,  to  atone  for  his  crime  by  such 
VOL.  I.— 15 


314  THE  EUROPEAN  AGE  OF  FAITH.  [CH.  X. 

penance  as  may  bo  exacted  in  this  world,  teaching  his 
sovereign  "  that  though  he  was  of  the  Church  and  in  the 
Church,  he  was  not  above  the  Church  ;"  that  brute  force 
must  give  way  to  intellect,  and  that  even  the  meanest 
human  being  has  rights  in  the  sight  of  God. 

Political  events  had  thus  taken  a  course  disastrous  to 
human  knowledge.  A  necessity  had  arisen  that  they  to 
whom  circumstances  had  given  the  c  ntrol  of  public  faith 
should  also  have  the  control  of  public  knowledge.  The 
moral  condition  of  the  world  had  thus  come  into  anta- 
gonism with  scientific  progress.  As  had  been  the  case  many 
introduction  ages  before  in  India,  the  sacred  writings  wero 
of  I'atristicism.  asserted  to  contain  whatever  was  necessary  or 
useful  for  man  to  know.  Questions  in  astronomy,  geo- 
graphy, chronology,  history,  or  any  other  branch  which 
had  hitherto  occupied  or  amused  the  human  mind,  wero 
now  to  be  referred  to  a  new  tribunal  for  solution,  and 
there  remained  nothing  to  be  done  by  the  philosopher. 
A  revelation  of  science  is  incompatible  with  any  farther 
advance ;  it  admits  no  employment  save  that  of  the  humble 
commentator. 

The  early  ecclesiastical  writers,  or  Fathers,  as  they  are 
often  called,  came  thus  to  be  considered  not  only  as  sur- 
passing all  other  men  in  piety,  but  also  as  excelling  them 
in  wisdom.  Their  dictum  was  looked  upon  as  final.  This 
eminent  position  they  held  for  many  centuries ;  indeed, 
it  was  no't  until  near  the  period  of  the  Reformation  that 
they  were  deposed.  The  great  critics  who  appeared  at 
that  time,  by  submitting  the  Patristic  works  to  a  higher 
analysis,  comparing  them  with  one  another  and  showing 
their  mutual  contradictions,  brought  them  all  to  their 
proper  level.  The  habit  of  even  so  much  as  quoting  them 
went  out  of  use,  when  it  was  perceived  that  not  one  of 
Apology  of  these  writers  could  present  the  necessary  creden- 
the  fathers  for  tials  to  entitle  him  to  speak  with  authority  on 
lsm'  any  scientific  fact.  Many  of  them  had  not 
scrupled  to  express  their  contempt  of  the  things  they  thus 
presumed  to  judge.  Thus  Eusebius  says :  "  It  is  not 
through  ignorance  of  the  things  admired  by  philosophers, 
but  through  contempt  of  such  useless  labour,  that  we  think 
so  little  of  these  matters,  turning  our  souls  to  the  exerciso 


CH.  X.]  THE   EUROPEAN   AGE   OF   FAITH.  315 

of  better  things."  In  such,  a  spirit  Lactantius  holds  the 
whole  of  philosophy  to  be  "  empty  and  false."  Speaking 
in  reference  to  the  heretical  doctrine  of  the  globular  form 
of  the  earth,  he  says :  "  Is  it  possible  that  men  can  be  so 
absurd  as  to  believe  that  the  crops  and  the  trees  on  the 
other  side  of  the  earth  hang  downward,  and  that  men  have 
their  feet  higher  than  their  heads  ?  If  you  ask  them  how 
they  defend  these  monstrosities ?  how  things  do  not  fall 
away  from  the  earth  on  that  side  ?  they  reply  that  the 
nature  of  things  is  such,  that  heavy  bodies  tend  toward 
the  centre  like  the  spokes  of  a  wheel,  while  light  bodies, 
as  clouds,  smoke,  fire,  tend  from  the  centre  to  the  heavens 
on  all  sides.  Now  I  am  really  at  a  loss  what  to  say  of 
those  who,  when  they  have  once  gone  wrong,  steadily  per- 
severe in  their  folly,  and  defend  one  absurd  opinion  by 
another."  On  the  question  of  the  antipodes,  St.  Augustine 
asserts  that  "  it  is  impossible  there  should  be  inhabitants 
on  the  opposite  side  of  the  earth,  since  no  such  race  is 
recorded  by  Scripture  among  the  descendants  of  Adam." 

Patristicism,  or  the  science  of  the  Fathers,  was  thus 
essentially  founded  on  the  principle  that  the  Scriptures 
contain  all  knowledge  permitted  to  man.  It  followed, 
therefore,  that  natural  phenomena  may  be  interpreted  by 
the  aid  of  texts,  and  that  all  philosophical  The  doctrines 
doctrines  must  be  moulded  to  the  pattern  of  of  Patristi- 
orthodoxy.  It  asserted  that  God  made  the  world 
out  of  nothing,  since  to  admit  the  eternity  of  matter  leads 
to  Manic]  laeism.  It  taught  that  the  earth  is  a  plane,  and 
the  sky  a  vault  above  it,  in  which  the  stars  are  fixed,  and 
the  sun,  moon,  and  planets  perform  their  motions,  rising 
and  setting;  that  these  bodies  are  altogether  of  a  subor- 
dinate nature,  their  use  being  to  give  light  to  man ;  that 
still  higher  and  beyond  the  vault  of  the  sky  is  heaven,  the 
abode  of  God  and  the  angelic  hosts  ;  that  in  six  days  the 
earth,  and  all  that  it  contains,  were  made ;  that  it  was 
overwhelmed  by  a  universal  deluge,  which  destroyed  all 
living  things  save  those  preserved  in  the  ark,  the  waters 
being  subsequently  dried  up  by  the  wind  ;  that  man  is  the 
moral  centre  of  the  world ;  for  him  all  things  were  created 
and  are  sustained ;  that,  so  far  as  his  ever  having  shown 
any  tendency  to  improvement,  he  has  fallen  both  io 


316  THE   EUROPEAN    AGE  OF  FAITH.  |rCll.  X. 

wisdom  and  worth,  the  first  man,  before  his  sin,  having 
been  perfect  in  body  and  soul :  hence  Patristic-ism  ever 
looked  backward,  never  forward;  that  through  that  sin 
death  came  into  the  world  ;  not  even  any  animal  had  died 
previously,  but  all  had  been  immortal.  It  utterly  rejected 
the  idea  of  the  government  of  the  world  by  law,  asserting 
the  perpetual  interference  of  an  instant  I  rovidencc  on  all 
occasions,  not  excepting  the  most  trifling  It  resorted  to 
spiritual  influences  in  the  production  of  natural  effects, 
assigning  to  angels  the  duty  of  moving  the  stars,  carrying 
up  water  from  the  sea  to  form  rain,  and  managing 
eclipses.  It  ailirmed  that  man  had  existed  but  a  few 
centuries  upon  earth,  and  that  he  could  continue  only  a 
little  longer,  for  that  the  world  itself  might  every  moment 
be  expected  to  be  burned  up  by  fire.  It  deduced  all  the 
families  of  the  earth  from  one  primitive  pair,  and  made 
them  all  morally  responsible  for  the  sin  committed  by  that 
pair.  (  It  rejected  the  doctrine  that  man  can  modify  his 
own  organism  as  absolutely  irreligious,  the  physician 
being  little  better  than  an  atheist,  but  it  affirmed  that 
cures  may  be  effected  by  the  intercession  of  saints,  at  the 
shrines  of  holy  men,  and  by  relics.  It  altogether  repu- 
diated the  improvement  of  man's  physical  state ;  to 
increase  his  power  or  comfort  was  to  attempt  to  attain 
what  Providence  denied ;  philosophical  investigation  was 
an  unlawful  prying  into  things  that  God  had  designed  to 
conceal.  It  declined  the  logic  of  the  Greeks,  substituting 
miracle-proof  for  it,  the  demonstration  of  an  assertion 
being  supposed  to  be  given  by  a  surprising  illustration  of 
something  else. 

A  wild  astronomy  had  thus  supplanted  the  astronomy 
of  Hipparchus ;  the  miserable  fictions  of  Eusebius  had 
siibverted  the  chronology  of  Manetho  and  Eratosthenes ; 
the  geometry  of  Euclid  and  Apollonius  was  held  to  be  of 
no  use ;  the  geography  of  Ptolemy  a  blunder ;  the  great 
mechanical  inventions  of  Archimedes  incomparably  sur- 
passed by  the  miracles  worked  at  the  shrines  of  a  hundred 
saints. 

Of  such  a  mixture  of  truth  and  of  folly  was  Patristicism 
composed.  Ignorance  in  power  had  found  it  necessary  to 
have  a  false  and  unprogressivo  science,  forgetting  that 


CH.  X.j  THE*  EUROPEAN   AGE  OF  FAITH.  317 

sooner  or  later  the  time  must  arrive  when  it  would  be 
impossible   to   maintain  stationary  ideas   in   a 
world  of  which  the  affairs  are  ever  advancing,  ^eakness  of 
A  failure  to  include  in  the  system  thus  imposed  the  Patristic 
upon  men  any  provision  for  intellectual  progress  8ys  c 
was  the  great  and  fatal  mistake  of  those  times.     Each 
passing  century  brought  its  incompatibilities.     A  strain 
upon  the  working  of  the  system  soon  occurred,  and  per- 
petually increased  in  force.     It  became  apparent  that,  in 
the  end,  the  imposition  would  be  altogether  unable  to  hold 
together.     On  a  futnre  page  we  shall  see  what  were  the 
circumstances  under  which  it  at  last  broke  down. 

The  wonder-worker  who  prepares  to  exhibit  his  phan- 
tasmagoria upon  the  wall,  knows  well  how  much  it  adds 
to  the  delusion  to  have  all  lights  extinguished  save  that 
which  is  in  his  own  dark  lantern.  I  have  now  it  commences 
to  relate  how  the  last  flickering  rays  of  Greek 
learning  were  put  out ;  how  Patristicism,  aided 
by  her  companion  Bigotry,  attempted  to  lay  the  foundations 
of  her  influence  in  security. 

In  the  reign  of  Theodosius  the  Great,  the  pagan  religion 
and  pagan  knowledge  were  together  destroyed.      This 
emperor  was   restrained  by  no  doubts,  for  he  was  very 
ignorant  and,  it  must  be  admitted,  was  equally  sincere 
and  severe.     Among  his  early  measures  we  find  an  order 
that  if  any  of  the  governors  of  Egypt  so  much  Actsof  the 
as  entered  a  temple  he  should  be  fined  fifteen  Emperor 
pounds  of  gold.     He  followed  this  by  the  de-  T 
struction  of  the  temples   of  Syria.     At  this  period  the 
Archbishopric  of  Alexandria  was  held  by  one  Theophilus, 
a  bold,  bad  man,  who  had  once  been  a  monk  of  Nitria.     It 
was  about  A.U.  390.     The  Trinitarian  conflict  was  at  the 
time  composed,  one  party  having  got  the  better  of  the 
other.  To  the  monks  and  rabble  of  Alexandria  the  temple  of 
Serapis  and  its  library  were  doubly  hateful,  partly  because 
of  the  Pantheistic  opposition  it  shadowed  forth  against 
the  prevailing  doctrine,  and  partly  because  within  its  walls 
Borcery,  magic,  and  other  dealings  with  the  devil  had  for 
ages   been   going   on.     We  have  related   how  Alexandrian 
Ptolemy  Philadelphus    commenced    the    great  librari(8- 
library  in   the  aristocratic  quarter    of  the   city   named 


318  THE  EUROPEAN   AGE  OF  FAITH.  [CH.  X. 

Bruchion,  and  added  various  scientific  establishments  to 
it.  Incited  by  this  example,  Eumenes,  King  of  Pergamus, 
established  out  of  rivalry  a  similar  library  in  his  metropolis. 
With  the  intention  of  preventing  him  from  excelling  that 
of  Egypt,  Ptolemy  Epiphanes  prohibited  the  exportation 
of  papyrus,  whereupon  Eumenes  invented  the  art  of 
making  parchment.  The  second  great  Alexandrian  library 
was  that  established  by  Ptolemy  Physcon  at  the  Serapion, 
in  the  adjoining  quarter  of  the  town.  The  library  in 
the  Bruchion,  which  was  estimated  to  contain  400,000 
volumes,  was  accidentally,  or,  as  it  has  been  said,  pur- 
posely burned  during  the  siege  of  the  city  by  Julius 
Caesar,  but  ihat  in  the  Serapion  escaped.  To  mako 
amends  for  this  great  catastrophe,  Marc  Antony  presented 

to  Cleopati.i  the  rival  library,  brought  for  that 
Pcrgamns  purpose  from  Pergamus.  It  consisted  of  200,000 
uansferrcd  to  volumes.  It  was  with  the  library  in  the 

Bruchion  that  the  Museum  was  originally  con- 
nected ;  but  after  its  conflagration,  the  remains  of  the 
various  surviving  establishments  were  transferred  to  the 
Serapion,  which  therefore  was,  at  the  period  of  which  we 
are  speaking,  the  greatest  depository  of  knowledge  in  the 
world. 

The  pagan  Eoman  emperors  had  not  been  unmindful  of 
the  great  trust  they  had  thus  inherited  from  the  Ptolemies. 
The  temple  of  The  temple  of  Serapis  was  universally  admitted 
Serapis.  to  be  -j^e  noblest  religious  structure  in  the 
world,  unless  perhaps  the  patriotic  Koman  excepted  that 
of  the  Capitoline  Jupiter.  It  was  approached  by  a  vast 
flight  of  steps  ;  was  adorned  with  many  rows  of  columns  ; 
and  in  its  quadrangular  portico — a  matchless  work  of  skill 
— were  placed  most  exquisite  statues.  On  the  sculptured 
walls  of  its  chambers,  and  upon  ceilings,  were  paintings  of 
unapproachable  excellence.  Of  the  value  of  these  works 
of  art  the  Greeks  were  no  incompetent  judges. 

The  Serapion,  with  these  its  precious  contents,  per- 
petually gave  umbrage  to  the  Archbishop  Theophilus  and 
his  party.  To  them  it  was  a  reproach  and  an  insult.  Its 
many  buildings  were  devoted  to  unknown,  and  there- 
fore' unholy  uses.  In  its  vaults  and  silent  chambers  the 
populace  believed  that  the  most  abominable  mysteries 


CH.  X.]  THE  EUROPEAN  AGE  OP  FAITH.  319 

were  carried  on.  There  were  magical  brazen  circles  and 
sun-dials  for  fortune-telling  in  its  porch ;  every  one  said 
that  they  had  once  belonged  to  Pharaoh  or  the  conjurors 
who  strove  with  Moses.  Alas  !  no  one  of  the  ferocious 
bigots  knew  that  with  these  Eratosthenes  had  in  the  old 
times  measured  the  size  of  the  earth,  and  Timocharis  had 
determined  the  motions  of  the  planet  Venus.  The  temple, 
with  its  pure  white  marble  walls,  and  endless  columns 
projected  against  a  blue  and  cloudless  Egyptian  sky,  was 
to  them  a  whited  sepulchre  full  of  rottenness  within.  In 
the  very  sanctuary  of  the  god  it  was  said  that  the  priests 
had  been  known  to  delude  the  wealthiest  and  most  beauti- 
ful Alexandrian  women,  who  fancied  that  they  were 
honoured  by  the  raptures  of  the  god.  To  this  temple,  so 
well  worthy  of  their  indignation,  Theophilus  directed  the 
attention  of  his  people.  It  happened  that  the  Emperor 
Constantius  had  formerly  given  to  the  Church  the  site  of 
an  ancient  temple  of  Osiris,  and,  in  digging  the  founda- 
tion for  the  new  edifice,  the  obscene  symbols  used  in  that 
worship  chanced  to  be  found.  With  more  zeal  than 
modesty,  Theophilus  exhibited  them  to  the  derision  of  the 
rabble  in  the  market-place.  The  old  Egyptian  pagan  party 
rose  to  avenge  the  insult.  A  riot  ensued,  one  Quarrel  be- 
Olympius,  a  philosopher,  being  the  leader.  J^^J.^ 
Their  head-quarters  were  in  the  massive  building  and'pagans  in 
of  the  Serapion,  from  which  issuing  forth  they  Alexandria- 
seized  whatever  Christians  they  could,  compelled  them  to 
offer  sacrifice,  and  then  killed  them  on  the  altar.  The 
dispute  was  referred  to  the  emperor,  in  the  meantime  the 
pagans  maintaining  themselves  in  the  temple-fortress.  In 
the  dead  of  night,  Olympius,  it  is  said,  was  awe-stricken  by 
the  sound  of  a  clear  voice  chanting  among  the  arches  and 
pillars  the  Christian  Alleluia.  Either  accepting,  like  a 
heathen,  the  omen,  or  fearing  a  secret  assassin,  he  escaped 
from  the  temple  and  fled  for  his  life.  On  the 
arrival  of  the  rescript  of  Theodosius  the  pagans  order*  the 
laid  down  their  arms,  little  expecting  the  orders  ^s^0^01* 
of  the  emperor.  He  enjoined  that  the  building 
should  forthwith  be  destroyed,  intrusting  the  task  to  the 
swift  hands  of  Theophilus.  His  work  was  commenced  by 
the  pillage  and  dispersal  of  the  library.  He  entered  the 


320  THE  EUROPEAN  AGE  OF  FAITH.  [CH.  X 

sanctuary  of  the  god — that  sanctiiary  which  was  the 
visible  sign  of  the  Pantheism  of  the  East,  the  memento  of 
the  alliance  between  hoary  primeval  Egypt  and  free- 
thinking  Greece,  the  relic  of  the  statesmanship  of  Alex- 
statue  of  ander's  captains.  In  gloomy  silence  the  image 
Serapisis  of  Serapis  confronted  its  assailants.  It  is  in 
>troy  '  such  a  moment  that  the  value  of  a  religion  is 
tried ;  the  god  who  cannot  defend  himself  is  a  convicted 
sham.  Theophilus,  undaunted,  commands  a  veteran  to 
strike  the  image  with  his  battle-axe.  The  helpless  statue 
offers  no  resistance.  Another  blow  rolls  the  head  of  the 
idol  on  the  floor.  It  is  said  that  a  colony  of  frightened 
rats  ran  forth  from  its  interior.  The  kingcraft,  and 
priestcraft,  and  solemn  swindle  of  seven  hundred  years  are 
exploded  in  a  shout  of  laughter ;  the  god  is  broken  to 
pieces,  his  members  dragged  through  the  streets.  The 
recesses  of  the  Serapion  are  explored.  Posterity  is  edified  by 
discoveries  of  frauds  by  which  the  priests  maintain  their 
power.  Among  other  wonders,  a  car  with  four  horses  ia 
seen  suspended  near  the  ceiling  by  means  of  a  magnet 
laid  on  the  roof,  which  being  removed  by  the  hand  of  a 
Christian,  the  imposture  fell  to  the  pavement.  The  his- 
torian of  these  events,  noticing  the  physical  impossibility 
of  such  things,  has  wisely  said  th.vt  it  is  more  easy  to 
invent  a  fictitious  story  than  to  support  a  practical  fraud. 
But  the  gold  and  silver  contained  in  the  temple  were 
carefully  collected,  the  baser  articles  being  broken  in 
pieces  or  cast  into  the  fire.  Nor  did  the  holy  zeal  of 
Theophilus  rest  until  the  structure  was  demolished  to  its 
very  foundations — a  work  of  no  little  labour — and  a 
church  erected  in  the  precincts.  It  must,  however,  have 
been  the  temple  more  particularly  which  experienced  this 
devastation.  The  building  in  which  the  library  had  been 
contained  must  have  escaped,  for,  twenty  years  subse- 
quently, Orosius  expressly  states  that  he  saw  the  empty 
cases  or  shelves.  The  fanatic  Theophilus  pushed  forward 
his  victory.  The  temple  at  Canopus  next  fell  before  him, 
and  a  general  attack  was  made  on  all  similar  edifices  in 
Persecutions  Egypt.  Speaking  of  the  monks  and  of  the 
ofTi«*i>hiius.  -worship  of  relics,  Eunapius  says :  "  Whoever 
wore  a  black  dress  was  invested  with  tyrannical  power ; 


CH.  X.j  THE   EUROPEAN   AGE  OF   FAITH.  321 

philosophy  and  piety  to  the  gods  were  compelled  to  retire 
into  secret  places,  and  to  dwell  in  contented  poverty  and 
dignified  meanness  of  appearance.  The  temples  were  turned 
into  tombs  for  the  adoration  of  the  bones  of  the  basest  and 
most  depraved  of  men,  who  had  suffered  the  penalty  of  the 
law,  and  whom  they  made  their  gods." 

Such  was  the  end  of  the  Serapion.     Its  destruction  stands 
forth  a  token  to  all  ages  of  the  state  of  the  times. 

In  a  few  years  after  this  memorable  event  the  Arch- 
bishop Theophilus  had  gone  to  his  account.  His  throne 
was  occupied  by  his  nephew,  St.  Cyril,  who  had 
been  expressly  prepared  for  that  holy  and  respon-  *'  yr' 
sible  office  by  a  residence  of  five  years  among  the  monks 
of  Nitria.  He  had  been  presented  to  the  fastidious  Alex- 
andrians with  due  precautions,  and  by  them  acknowledged 
to  be  an  effective  and  fashionable  preacher.  His  pagan 
opponents,  however,  asserted  that  the  clapping  of  hands 
and  encores  bestowed  on  the  more  elaborate  passages  of 
his  sermons  were  performed  by  persons  duly  arranged  in 
the  congregation,  and  paid  for  their  trouble.  If  doubt 
remains  as  to  his  intellectual  endowments,  there  can  be 
none  respecting  the  qualities  of  his  heart.  The  three 
parties  into  which  the  population  of  the  city  was  divided 
— Christian,  Heathen,  and  Jewish — kept  up  a  perpetual 
disorder  by  their  disputes.  Of  the  last  it  is  said  that  the 
number  was  not  less  than  forty  thousand.  The  episcopate 
itself  had  become  much  less  a  religious  than  an  important 
civil  office,  exercising  a  direct  municipal  control  through 
the  Parabolani,  which,  under  the  disguise  of  city  mission- 
aries, whose  duty  it  was  to  seek  out  the  sick  and  destitute, 
constituted  in  reality  a  constabulary  force,  or  rather 
actually  a  militia.  The  unscrupulous  manner  in  which 
Cyril  made  use  of  this  force,  diverting  it  from  Determmeson 
its  ostensible  purpose,  is  indicated  by  the  fact  supremacy  in 
that  the  emperor  was  obliged  eventually  to  take  Alcxandria- 
the  appointments  to  it  out  of  the  archbishop's  hands,  and 
reduce  the  number  to  five  or  six  hundred.  Some  local 
circumstances  had  increased  the  animosity  between  the 
Jews  and  the  Christians,  and  riots  had  taken  Riots  in  that 
place  between  them  in  the  theatre.  These  were  clty- 
followed  by  more  serious  conflicts  in  the  streets ;  and  tho 

15* 


322  THE  KUROPEAN   AGE   OF  FAITH.  [CH.  X. 

Jews,  for  the  moment  having  the  advantage  over  their 
antagonists,  outraged  and  massacred  them.  It  was, 
however,  but  for  a  moment ;  for,  the  Christians  arousing 
themselves  under  the  inspirations  of  Cyril,  a  mob  sacked 
the  synagogues,  pillaged  the  houses  of  the  Jews,  and  en- 
deavoured to  expel  those  offenders  out  of  the  city.  The 
prefect  Orestes  was  compelled  to  interfere  to  stop  the  riot ; 
but  the  archbishop  was  not  so  easily  disposed  of.  His  old 
associates,  the  Nitrian  monks,  now  justified  the  prophetic 
forecast  of  Theophilus.  Five  hundred  of  those  fanatics 
swarmed  into  the  town  from  the  desert.  The  prefect 
himself  w;is  assaulted,  and  wounded  in  the  head  by  a  stone 
thrown  by  Ammonius,  one  of  them.  The  more  respectable 
citizens,  alarmed  at  the  turn  things  were  taking,  inter- 
fered, and  Ammonius,  being  seized,  suffered  death  at  the 
hands  of  the  lictor.  Cyril,  undismayed,  caused  his  body 
to  be  transported  to  the  Ccesareum,  laid  there  in  state,  and 
buried  with  unusual  honours,  lie  directed  that  the  name 
of  the  fallen  zealot  should  be  changed  from  Ammonius  to 
Thaumasius,  or  "the  Wonderful,"  and  the  holy  martyr 
received  the  honours  of  canonization. 

In  these  troubles  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  pagans 
sympathized  with  the  Jews,  and  therefore  drew  upon 
themselves  the  vengeance  of  Cyril.  Among  the  culti- 
„  tl  vators  of  Platonic  philosophy  whom  the  times 

Hypatia.  ,      ,  ,     ,  L    .-<•  -, 

had  spared,  there  was  a  beautiful  young  woman, 
Hypatia,  the  daughter  of  Theon  the  mathematician,  who 
not  only  distinguished  herself  by  her  expositions  of  the 
K eo  Platonic  and  Peripatetic  doctrines,  but  was  also 
honoured  for  the  ability  with  which  she  commented  on 
the  writings  of  Apollonius  and  other  geometers.  Every 
day  before  her  door  stood  a  long  train  of  chariots  ;  her 
lecture-room  was  crowded  with  the  wealth  and  fashion  of 
Alexandria.  Her  aristocratic  audiences  were  more  than 
a  rival  to  those  attending  upon  the  preaching  of  the  arch- 
bishop, and  perhaps  contemptuous  comparisons  were  insti- 
tuted between  the  philosophical  lectures  of  Hypatia  and 
the  incomprehensible  sermons  of  Cyril.  But  if  the  arch- 
bishop had  not  philosophy,  he  had  what  on  such  occasions 
is  more  valuable — power.  It  was  not  to  be  borne  that  a 
heathen  sorceress  should  thus  divide  such  a  metropolis 


CH.  X.]  THE   EUROPEAN   AGE  OF  FAITH.  323 

with  a  prelate ;  it  was  not  to  be  borne  that  the  rich,  and 
noble,  and  young  should  thus  be  carried  off  by  the  black 
arts  of  a  diabolical  enchantress.  Alexandria  was  too  fair  a 
prize  to  be  lightly  surrendered.  It  could  vie  with  The  city  of 
Constantinople  itself.  Into  its  streets,  from  the  Alexandria. 
yellow  sand-hills  of  the  desert,  long  trains  of  camels  and 
countless  boats  brought  the  abundant  harvests  of  the  Nile. 
A  ship-canal  connected  the  harbour  of  Eunostos  with  Lake 
Mareotis.  The  harbour  was  a  forest  of  masts.  Seaward, 
looking  over  the  blue  Mediterranean,  was  the  great  light- 
house, the  Pharos,  counted  as  one  of  the  wonders  of  the 
world  ;  and  to  protect  the  shipping  from  the  north  wind 
there  was  a  mole  three  quarters  of  a  mile  in  length,  with 
its  drawbridges,  a  marvel  of  the  skill  of  the  Macedonian 
engineers.  Two  great  streets  crossed  each  other  at  right 
angles — one  was  three,  the  other  one  mile  long.  In  tho 
square  where  they  intersected  stood  the  mausoleum  in 
which  rested  the  body  of  Alexander.  The  city  was  full  of 
noble  edifices — the  palace,  the  exchange,  the  Caesareum, 
tho  halls  of  justice.  Among  the  temples,  those  of  Pan 
and  Neptune  were  conspicuous.  The  visitor  passed 
countless  theatres,  churches,  temples,  synagogues.  There 
was  a  time  before  Theophilus  when  the  tSerapion  might 
have  been  approached  on  one  side  by  a  slope  for  carriages, 
on  the  other  by  a  flight  of  a  hundred  marble  steps.  On 
these  stood  the  grand  portico  with  its  columns,  its 
chequered  corridor  leading  round  a  roofless  hall,  the  ad- 
joining porches  of  which  contained  the  library,  and  from 
the  midst  of  its  area  arose  a  lofty  pillar  visible  afar  off  at 
sea.  On  one  side  of  the  town  were  the  royal  docks,  on  the 
other  the  Hippodrome,  and  on  appropriate  sites  the  Necro- 
polis, the  market-places,  the  gymnasium,  its  stoa  being  a 
stadium  long;  the  amphitheatre,  groves,  gardens,  foun- 
tains, obelisks,  and  countless  public  buildings  with  gilded 
roofs  glittering  in  the  sun.  Here  might  be  seen  the 
wealthy  Christian  ladies  walking  in  the  streets,  their 
dresses  embroidered  with  Scripture  parables,  the  Gospels 
hanging  from  their  necks  by  a  golden  chain,  Maltese  dogs 
with  jewelled  collars  frisking  round  them,  and  slaves  with 
parasols  and  fans  trooping  along.  There  might  be  seen 
the  ever-trading,  ever-thriving  Jew,  fresh  from  the 


324  THE   EUROPEAN   AGE   OF   FAITH.  [CH.  X 

wharves,  or  busy  negotiating  his  loans.  But,  worst  of  all, 
the  chariots  with  giddy  or  thoughtful  pagans  hastening 
to  the  academy  of  Hypatia,  to  hear  those  questions  dis- 
cussed which  have  never  yet  been  answered,  "  Where  am 
I  ?"  "  What  am  I  ?"  "  What  can  I  know  ?"— to  hear  dis- 
courses on  antenatal  existence,  or,  as  the  vulgar  asserted, 
to  find  out  the  future  by  the  aid  of  the  black  art,  sooth- 
saying by  Chaldee  talismans  engraved  on  precious  stones, 
by  incantations  with  a  glass  and  water,  by  moonshine  on 
the  walls,  by  the  magic  mirror,  the  reflection  of  a  sapphire, 
a  sieve,  or  cymbals ;  fortune- telling  by  the  veins  of  the 
hand,  or  consultations  with  the  stars. 

Cyril  at  length  determined  to  remove  this  great  re- 
proach, and  overturn  what  now  appeared  to  be  the  only 
obstacle  in  his  way  to  uncontrolled  authority  in  the  city. 
We  are  reaching  one  of  those  moments  in  which  great 
general  principles  embody  themselves  in  individuals.  It 
is  Greek  philosophy  under  the  appropriate  form  of 
Hypatia;  ecclesiastical  ambition  under  that  of  Cyril. 
MurJeror  Their  destinies  are  about  to  be  fulfilled.  As 
Hypatia  by  Hypatia  comes  forth  to  her  academy,  she  is 
assaulted  by  Cyril's  mob — an  Alexandrian  mob 
of  many  monks.  Amid  the  fearful  yelling  of  these  bare- 
legged and  black-cowled  fiends  she  is  dragged  from  her 
chariot,  and  in  the  public  street  stripped  naked.  In  her 
mortal  terror  she  is  haled  into  an  adjacent  church,  and  in 
that  sacred  edifice  is  killed  by  the  club  of  Peter  the  Reader. 
It  is  not  always  in  the  power  of  him  who  has  stirred  nj. 
the  worst  passions  of  a  fanatical  mob  to  stop  their  excesses 
when  his  purpose  is  accomplished.  With  the  blow  given 
by  Peter  the  aim  of  Cyril  was  reached,  but  his  merciless 
adherents  had  not  glutted  their  vengeance.  They  out- 
raged the  naked  corpse,  dismembered  it,  and  incredible  to 
be  said,  finished  their  infernal  crime  by  scraping  the  flesh 
from  the  bones  with  oyster-shells,  and  casting  the  rem- 
nants into  the  fire.  Though  in  his  privacy  St.  Cyril  and 
his  friends  might  laugh  at  the  end  of  his  antagonist,  his 
memory  must  bear  the  weight  of  the  righteous  indignation 
of  posterity. 

Thus,  in  the  414th  year  of  our  era,  the  position  of  philo 
Bophy  in  the  intellectual  metropolis  of  the  world  was 


CH.  X.]         THE  EUROPEAN  AGE  OF  FAITH.  325 

determined ;   henceforth  science  must  sink  into  obscurity 
and  subordination.     Its  public  existence  will  no  c 

,  ,    ,      T     ,  r  Suppression  oi 

longer  be  tolerated.  Indeed,  it  may  be  said  that  Alexandrian 
from  this  period  for  some  centuries  it  altogether  8C 
disappeared.  The  leaden  mace  of  bigotry  had  struck  and 
shivered  the  exquisitely  tempered  steel  of  Greek  philo- 
sophy. Cyril's  acts  passed  unquestioned.  It  was  now 
ascertained  that  throughout  the  Roman  world  there  must 
be  no  more  liberty  of  thought.  It  had  been  said  that 
these  events  prove  Greek  philosophy  to  have  been  a  sham4 
and,  like  other  shams,  it  was  driven  out  of  the  world  when 
detected,  and  that  it  could  not  withstand  the  truth.  Such 
assertions  might  answer  their  purposes  very  well,  so  long 
as  the  victors  maintained  their  power  in  Alexandria,  but 
they  manifestly  are  of  inconvenient  application  after  the 
Saracens  had  captured  the  city.  However  this  may  be,  an 
intellectual  stagnation  settled  upon  the  place,  an  invisible 
atmosphere  of  oppression,  ready  to  crush  down,  morally 
and  physically,  whatever  provoked  its  weight.  And  so 
for  the  next  two  dreary  and  weary  centuries  things  re- 
mained, until  oppression  and  force  were  ended  by  a  foreign 
invader.  It  was  well  for  the  world  that  the  Arabian 
conquerors  avowed  their  true  argument,  the  scimitar,  and 
made  no  pretensions  to  superhuman  wisdom.  They  were 
thus  left  free  to  pursue  knowledge  without  involving 
themselves  in  theological  contradictions,  and  were  able  to 
make  Egypt  once  more  illustrious  among  the  nations  of 
the  earth — to  snatch  it  from  the  hideous  fanaticism,  ignor- 
ance, and  barbarism  into  which  it  had  been  plunged.  On 
the  shore  of  the  Eed  Sea  once  more  a  degree  of  the  earth's 
surface  was  to  be  measured,  and  her  size  ascertained — 
but  by  a  Mohammedan  astronomer.  In  Alexandria  the 
memory  of  the  illustrious  old  times  was  to  be  recalled  by 
the  discovery  of  the  motion  of  the  sun's  apogee  by 
Albategnius,  and  the  third  inequality  of  the  moon,  the 
variation,  by  Aboul  Wefa ;  to  be  discovered  six  centuries 
later  in  Europe  by  Tycho  Brahe.  The  canal  of  the 
Pharaohs  from  the  Nile  to  the  Eed  Sea,  cleared  out  by  the 
Ptolemies  in  former  ages,  was  to  be  cleared  from  its  sand 
again.  The  glad  desert  listened  once  more  to  the  cheerful 
cry  of  the  merchant  camel-driver  instead  of  the  midnight 
prayer  of  the  monk. 


CHAPTEE  XI. 

PREMATURE  END  OF  THE  AGE  OF  FAITH  IN  THE 
EAST. 

THE  THREE   ATTACKS,   VANDAL,   PERSIAN,   ARAB. 

THE  VANDAL  ATTACK  leads  to  the  Loss  of  Africa. — Recovery  of  thai 

Province  by  Justinian  after  yreat.  Calamities. 
THE  PERSIAN  ATTACK  leads  to  the  Loss  of  Syria  and  Fall  of  Jerusalem. 

— The  true  Cross  carried  away  as  a  Trophy. — Moral  Impression  of 

these  Attacks. 
THE  ARAB  ATTACK. — Birth,  Mission,  and  Doctrines  of  Mohammed. — 

Rapid  Spread  of  his  Faith  in  Asia  and  Africa. — Fall  of  Jerusalem. — 

Dreadful  Losses  of  Christianity  to  Mohammedanism. — The  Ardbt 

become  a  learned  Nation. 
Review  of  the  Koran. — Reflexions  on  the  Loss  of  Asia  and  Africa  by 

Christendom. 

I  HAVE  now  to  describe  the  end  of  the  age  of  Faith  in  the 
East.     The  Byzantine  system,  out  of  which  it 
had  issued,  was  destroyed  by  three  attacks  :  1st, 
Byzantine       ],y  the  Vandal  invasion  of  Africa  ;  2nd,  by  the 
military   operations   of   Chosroes,   the   Persian 
king  ;  3rd,  by  Mohammedanism. 

Of  these  three  attacks,  the  Vandal  may  be  said,  in  a 
military  sense,  to  have  been  successfully  closed  by  the 
victories  of  Justinian;  but,  politically,  the  cost  of  those 
victories  was  the  depopulation  and  ruin  of  the  empire,  par- 
ticularly in  the  south  and  west.  The  second,  the  Persian 
attack,  though  brilliantly  resisted  in  its  later  years  by  the 
Emperor  Heraclius,  left,  throughout  the  East,  a  profound 
moral  impression,  which  proved  final  and  fatal  in  the 
Mohammedan  attack. 

No  heresy  has  ever  produced  such  important  political 
results  as  that  of  Arius.  While  it  was  yet  a  vital  doctrine, 
it  led  to  the  infliction  of  unspeakable  calamities  on  the 


CH.  XI.]  THE  AGE   OF  FAITH   IN   THE  EAST.  327 

empire,  and,  though,  long  ago  forgotten,  has  blasted  perma- 
nently some  of  the  fairest  portions  of  the  globe.  The  Vandal 
When  Count  Boniface,  incited  by  the  intrigues  attack- 
of  the  patrician  ^Etius,  invited  Genseric,  the  King  of  the 
Vandals,  into  Africa,  that  barbarian  found  in   the    dis- 
contented sectaries  his  most  effectual  aid.     In  vain  would 
ho  otherwise  have  attempted  the  conquest  of  the  country 
with  the   50,000  men  ho    landed  from    Spain,  A.  D.  429. 
Three   hundred   Donatist    bishops,    and   many  conquest  of 
thousand    priests,    driven    to  despair    by    the  Africa- 
persecutions  inflicted  by  the  emperor,  carrying  with  them 
that  large  portion  of  the  population  who  were  Ariun,  were 
ready  to  look  upon  him  as  a  deliverer,  and  therefore  to 
afford  him  support.     The  result  to  the  empire  was  the  loss 
of  Africa. 

It  was  nothing  more  than  might  have  been  expected  that 
Justinian,  when  he  found  himself  firmly  seated  on  the 
throne  of  Constantinople,  should  make  an  attempt  to 
retrieve  these  disasters.  The  principles  which  led  him  to 
his  scheme  of  legislation;  to  the  promotion  of  The  reign  of 
manufacturing  interests  by  the  fabrication  of  Justin>an- 
silk ;  to  the  reopening  of  the  ancient  routes  to  India,  so  as 
to  avoid  transit  through  the  Persian  dominions ;  to  his 
attempt  at  securing  the  carrying  trade  of  Europe  for  the 
Greeks,  also  suggested  the  recovery  of  Africa.  To  this 
important  step  he  was  urged  by  the  Catholic  clergy.  In  a 
sinister  but  suitable  manner,  his  reign  was  illustrated  by 
his  closing  the  schools  of  philosophy  at  Aihens,  ostensibly 
because  of  their  affiliation  to  paganism,  but  in  reality  on 
account  of  his  detestation  of  the  doctrines  of  Aristotle  and 
Plato ;  by  the  abolition  of  the  consulate  of  Koine  ;  by  the 
extinction  of  the  Eoman  senate,  A.D.  552  ;  by  the  capture 
and  recapture  five  times  of  the  Eternal  City.  The  vanish- 
ing of  the  Roman  race  was  thus  marked  by  an  extinction 
}f  the  instruments  of  ancient  philosophy  and  power. 

The  indignation  of  the  Catholics  was  doubtless  justly 
provoked  by  the  atrocities  practised  in  the  Arian  behalf 
by  the  Vandal  kings  of  Africa,  who,  among  other  cruelties, 
had  attempted  to  silence  some  bishops  by  cutting  Hisrcconquest 
out  their  tongues.  To  carry  out  Justinian's  ofAfrica- 
intention  of  the  recovery  of  Africa,  his  general  Belisarius 


328  PREMATURE   END   OF   THE  [CH.  XI. 

sailed  at  midsummer,  AD.  533,  and  in  November  he  had 
completed  the  reconquest  of  the  country. 

This  was  speedy  work,  but  it  was  followed  by  fearful 

calamities ;  for  in  this,  and  the  Italian  wars  of 
calamities  Justinian,  likewise  undertaken  at  the  instance 
produced  by  of  the  orthodox  clergy,  the  human  race  visibly 

diminished.  It  is  affirmed  that  in  the  African 
campaign  five  millions  of  the  people  of  that  country  were 
consumed;  that  during  the  twenty  years  of  the  Gothic 
War  Italy  lost  fifteen  millions ;  and  that  the  wars,  famines, 
and  pestilences  of  the  reign  of  Justinian  diminished  the 
human  species  by  the  almost  incredible  number  of  one 
hundred  millions. 

It  is  therefore  not  at  all  surprising  that  in  such  a 
deplorable  condition  men  longed  for  a  deliverer,  in  their 
despair  totally  regardless  who  he  might  be  or  from  what 
quarter  he  might  come.  Ecclesiastical  partisanship  had 
The  Persian  done  its  work.  "When  Chosroes  II.,  the  Persian 
attack.  monarch,  A.n.  611,  commenced  his  attack,  the 

persecuted  sectaries  of  Asia  Minor,  Syria,  and  Egypt 
followed  the  example  of  the  African  Arians  in  the  Vandal 
invasion,  and  betrayed  the  empire.  The  revenge  of  an 
oppressed  heretic  is  never  scrupulous  about  its  means  of 
gratification.  As  might  have  been  expected,  the  cities  of 
Fan  ana  Asia  fell  before  the  Persians.  They  took  Jeru- 
piiiaRe  of  salem  by  assault,  and  with  it  the  cross  of  Christ ; 

ninety  thousand  Christians  were  massacred ; 
and  in  its  very  birthplace  <  hristianity  was  displaced 
by  Magianism.  Tho  shock  which  religious  men  received 
through  this  dreadful  event  can  hardly  now  be  realized. 
The  imposture  of  Constantino  bore  a  bitter  fruit ;  the 
sacred  wood  which  had  filled  the  world  with  its  miracles 
was  detected  to  be  a  helpless  counterfeit,  borne  off  in 
triumph  by  deriding  blasphemers.  All  confidence  in  the 
apostolic  powers  of  the  Asiatic  bishops  was  lost ;  not  one 
of  them  could  work  a  wonder  for  his  own  salvation  in  the 
dire  extremity.  The  invaders  overran  Egypt  as  far  as 
Triumphs  of  Ethiopia;  it  seemed  as  if  the  days  of  Cambyses 
cu  sro.s.  jja(j  come  back  again.  The  Archbishop  of 
Alexandria  found  it  safer  to  flee  to  Cyprus  than  to  defend 
himself  by  spiritual  artifices  or  to  rely  on  prayer.  Tho 


CH.  XI.]  AGE  OF  FAITH   IN    THE  EAST.  329 

Mediterranean  shore  to  Tripoli  was  subdued.  For  ten 
years  the  Persian  standards  were  displayed  in  view  of 
Constantinople.  At  one  time  Heraclius  had  determined  to 
abandon  that  city,  and  make  Carthage  the  metropolis  of 
the  empire.  His  intention  was  defeated  by  the  combina- 
tion of  the  patriarch,  who  dreaded  the  loss  of  his  position  ; 
of  the  aristocracy,  who  foresaw  their  own  ruin ;  and  of  the 
people,  who  would  thus  be  deprived  of  their  largesses  and 
shows.  Africa  was  more  truly  Roman  than  any  other  of 
the  provinces;  it  was  there  that  Latin  was  last  used.  But 
when  the  vengeance  of  the  heretical  sects  was  satisfied, 
they  found  that  they  had  only  changed  the  tyrant  without 
escaping  the  tyranny.  The  magnitude  of  their  treason 
was  demonstrated  by  the  facility  with  which  Heraclius 
expelled  the  Persians  as  soon  as  they  chose  to  assist  him. 

In  vain,  after  these  successes,  what  was  passed  off  as 
the  true  cross  was  restored  again  to  Jerusalem — the  charm 
was  broken.  The  Magian  fire  had  burnt  the  sepulchre  of 
Christ,  and  the  churches  of  Constantino  and  xhe  moral 
Helena ;  the  costly  gifts  of  the  piety  of  three  impression  of 
centuries  were  gone  into  the  possession  of  the  th 
Persian  and  the  Jew.  Never  again  was  it  possible  that 
faith  could  be  restored.  They  who  had  devoutly  expected 
that  the  earth  would  open,  the  lightning  descend,  or 
sudden  death  arrest  the  sacrilegious  invader  of  the  holy 
places,  and  had  seen  that  nothing  of  the  kind  ensued, 
dropped  at  once  into  dismal  disbelief.  Asia  and  Africa 
were  already  morally  lost.  The  scimitar  of  the  Arabian 
soon  cut  the  remaining  tie. 

Four  years  after  the  death  of  Justinian,  A.D.  569,  was 
s  born  at  Mecca,  in  Arabia,  the  man  who,  of  all  Birth  of  Mo- 
men,  has  exercised  the  greatest  influence  upon  hammed. 
the  human  race — Mohammed,  by  Europeans  surnamed  "  the 
Impostor."  He  raised  his  own  nation  from  Fetichism,  the 
adoration  of  a  meteoric  stone,  and  from  the  basest  idol- 
worship;  he  preached  a  monotheism  which  quickly 
scattered  to  the  winds  the  empty  disputes  of  the  Arians 
and  Catholics,  and  irrevocably  wrenched  from  Christianity 
more  than  half,  and  that  by  far  the  best  half  of  her 
possessions,  since  it  included  the  Holy  Land,  the  birth- 
place of  our  faith,  and  Africa,  which  had  imparted  to  it 


330  PKEMATURE   END  OP   THE  [CH.  XI. 

its  Latin  form.  That  continent,  and  a  very  large  part  of 
Asia,  after  the  lapse  of  more  than  a  thousand  years,  still 
remain  permanently  attached  to  the  Arabian  doctrine. 
With  the  utmost  difficulty,  and  as  if  by  miracle,  Europe 
itself  escaped. 

Mohammed  possessed  that  combination  of  qualities  which 
more  than  once  has  decided  the  fate  of  empires.  A 
His  preach-  preaching  soldier,  he  was  eloquent  in  the  pulpit, 
Jng,  valiant  in  the  field.  His  theology  was  simple : 

"  There  is  but  one  God."  The  effeminate  Syrian,  lost  in 
Monothelito  and  Monophysite  mysteries  ;  the  Athanasian 
and  Arian,  destined  to  disappear  before  hie  breath,  might 
readily  anticipate  what  he  meant.  Asserting  that  ever- 
lasting truth,  he  did  not  engage  in  vain  metaphysics,  but 
applied  himself  to  improving  the  social  condition  of  his 
people  by  regulations  respecting  personal  cleanliness, 
sobriety,  fasting,  prayer.  Above  all  other  works  he 
/esteemed  almsgiving  and  charity.  With  a  liberality  to 
»  which  the  world  had  of  late  become  a  stranger,  he  admitted 
the  salvation  of  men  of  any  form  of  faith  provided  they 
were  virtuous.  To  the  declaration  that  there  is  but  one 
God,  he  added,  "  and  Mohammed  is  his  Prophet."  Who- 
ever desires  to  know  whether  the  event  of  things  answered 
to  the  boldness  of  such  an  announcement,  will  do  well  to 
and  title  to  examine  a  map  of  the  world  in  our  own  times, 
aposticship.  j]0  win  £n(j  the  marks  of  something  more 
than  an  imposture.  To  be  the  religious  head  of  many 
empires,  to  guide  the  daily  life  of  one-third  of  the  human 
race,  may  perhaps  justify  the  title  of  a  messenger  of  God. 

Like  many  of  the  Christian  monks,  Mohammed  retired 
to  the  solitude  of  the  desert,  and,  devoting  himself  to 
meditation,  fasting,  and  prayer,  became  the  victim  of 
cerebral  disorder.  Ho  was  visited  by  supernatural  appear- 

. ,   .       ances,  mysterious  voices  accosting  him  as  the 

His  delusions,    rt—      \.   j      ff^-  a  j.i_  i  ^  •    •        T 

Prophet  of  God  :  even  the  stones  and  trees  joined 
in  the  whispering.  He  himself  suspected  the  true  nature 
of  his  malady,  and  to  his  wife  Chadizah  he  expressed  a 
V  dread  that  he  was  becoming  insane.  It  is  related  that  as 
they  sat  alone,  a  shadow  entered  the  room.  "  Dost  thou 
see  aught  ?"  said  Chadizah,  who,  after  the  manner  of 
Arabian  matrons,  wore  her  veil.  "  I  do,"  said  the  prophet. 


CH.  XI.J  AGE  OF  FAITH   IN   THE   EAST.  331 

Whereupon  she  uncovered  her  face  and  said,  "  Dost  thou 
see  it  now?"  "I  do  not."  "Glad  tidings  to  thee,  O 
Mohammed  !"  exclaimed  Chadizah  :  "  it  is  an  angel,  for  he 
has  respected  my  unveiled  face ;  an  evil  spirit  would  not." 
As  his  disease  advanced,  these  spectral  illusions  became 
more  frequent;  from  one  of  them  he  received  the  divine 
commission.  "  I,"  said  his  wife,  "  will  be  thy  first  be- 
liever ;"  and  they  knelt  down  in  prayer  together.  Since 
that  day  nine  thousand  millions  of  human  beings  have 
acknowledged  him  to  be  a  prophet  of  God. 

Though,  in  the  earlier  part  of  his  career,  Mohammed 
exhibited  a  spirit  of  forbearance  toward  the  Christians,  it 
was  not  possible  but  that  bitter  animosity  should  arise,  as 
the  sphere  of  his  influence  extended.  He  appears  to  have 
been  unable  to  form  any  other  idea  of  the  Trinity 
than  that  of  three  distinct  gods ;  and  the  worship  antagonism 
of  the  Virgin  Mary,  recently  introduced,  could  tochrisiian- 
not  fail  to  come  into  irreconcilable  conflict  with  ' 
his  doctrine  of  the  unity  of  God.  To  his  condemna- 
tion of  those  Jews  who  taught  that  Ezra  was  the  Son  of 
God,  he  soon  added  bitter  denunciations  of  the  Oriental 
churclies  because  of  their  idolatrous  practices.  The  Koran 
is  full  of  such  rebukes :  "  Verily,  Christ  Jesus,  the  Son  of 
Mary,  is  the  apostle  of  God."  "  Believe,  therefore,  in  God 
and  his  apostles,  and  say  not  that  there  are  three  gods. 
Forbear  this ;  it  will  be  better  for  you.  God  is  but  one 
God.  Far  bo  it  from  Him  that  he  should  have  a  son." 
"  In  the  last  day,  God  shall  say  unto  Jesus,  O  Jesus,  son 
of  Mary !  hast  thou  ever  said  to  men,  Take  me  and  my 
mother  for  two  gods  beside  God  ?  He  shall  say,  Praise  be 
unto  thee,  it  is  not  for  me  to  say  that  which  I  ought  not." 
Mohammed  disdained  all  metaphysical  speculations  respect- 
ing the  nature  of  the  Deity,  or  of  the  origin  and  existence 
of  sin,  topics  which  had  hitherto  exercised  the  ingenuity 
of  the  East.  He  cast  aside  the  doctrine  of  the  superlative 
value  of  chastity,  asserting  that  marriage  is  the  natural 
state  of  man.  To  asceticism  he  opposed  poly-  institution  of 
gamy,  permitting  the  practice  of  it  in  this  life  potygamy. 
and  promising  the  most  voluptuous  means  for  its  enjoyment 
in  Paradise  hereafter,  especially  to  those  who  had  gained 
the  crowns  of  martyrdom  or  of  victory. 


332  PREMATURE  END  OF  THE  [dH.  3D, 

Too  often,  in  this  world,  success  is  the  criterion  of  right. 
The  Mohammedan  appeals  to  the  splendour  and  rapidity 
Results  of  his  of  his  career  as  a  proof  of  the  divine  mission  of 
his  apostle.  It  may,  however,  be  permitted  to  a 
philosopher,  who  desires  to  speak  of  the  faith  of  so  large 
a  portion  of  the  human  race  with  profound  respect,  to 
examine  what  were  some  of  the  secondary  causes  which 
led  to  so  great  a  political  result.  From  its  most  glorious 
seats  Christianity  was  for  ever  expelled :  from  Palestine, 
the  scene  of  its  most  sacred  recollections  ;  from  Asia  Minor, 
that  of  its  first  churches ;  from  Egypt,  whence  issued  the 
great  doctrine  of  Trinitarian  orthodoxy ;  from  Carthage, 
who  imposed  her  belief  on  Europe. 

It  is  altogether  a  misconception  that  the  Arabian  progress 
Causes  of  bis  was  due  to  the  sword  alone.  The  sword  may 
success.  change  an  acknowledged  national  creed,  but  it 
cannot  affect  the  consciences  of  men.  Profound  though  its 
argument  is,  something  far  more  profound  was  demanded 
before  Mohammedanism  pervaded  the  domestic  life  of  Asia 
and  Africa,  before  Arabic  became  the  language  of  so  many 
different  nations. 

The  explanation  of  this  political  phenomenon  is  to  be 
found  in  the  social  condition  of  the  conquered  countries. 
The  influences  of  religion  in  them  had.  long  ago  ceased ; 
it  had  become  supplanted  by  theology — a  theology  so  incom- 
prehensible that  even  the  wonderful  capabilities  of  the 
Greek  language  were  scarcely  enough  to  meet  its  subtle 
demands  ;  the  Latin  and  the  barbarian  dialects  were  out  of 
the  question.  How  was  it  possible  that  unlettered  men,  who 
with  difficulty  can  be  made  to  apprehend  obvious  things, 
should  understand  such  mysteries  ?  Yet  they  were  taught 
that  on  those  doctrines  the  salvation  or  damnation  of  the 
human  race  depended.  They  saw  that  the  clergy  had 
abandoned  the  guidance  of  the  individual  life  of  their  flocks; 
that  personal  virtue  or  vice  were  no  longer  considered ; 
that  sin  was  not  measured  by  evil  works  but  by  the  degrees 
of  heresy.  They  saw  that  the  ecclesiastical  chiefs  of  Rome, 
Constantinople,  and  Alexandria  were  engaged  in  a  des- 
perate struggle  for  supremacy,  carrying  out  their  purposes 
by  weapons  and  in  ways  revolting  to  the  conscience  of 
man.  What  an  example  when  bishops  were  concerned  in 


CII.  XI.]         AGE  OF  FAITH  IN  THE  EAST.  333 

assassinations,     poisonings,    adulteries,    Windings,    riots, 
treasons,  civil  war ;  when  patriarchs  and  primates  civil  weak- 
were  excommunicating  and  anathematizing  one  F88  produced 

.,  ,1     .         •       i    •         f  J.-LI  by  ecclesias- 

another  in  their  rivalries  tor  earthly  power,  ticai  demorai- 
bribing  eunuchs  with  gold,  and  courtesans  and  ization- 
royal  females  with  concessions  of  episcopal  love,  and  in- 
fluencing the  decisions  of  councils  asserted  to  speak  with 
the  voice  of  God  by  those  base  intrigues  and  sharp  practices 
resorted  to  by  demagogues  in  their  packed  assemblies ! 
Among  legions  of  monks,  who  carried  terror  into  the 
imperial  armies  and  riot  into  the  great  cities,  arose  hideous 
clamours  for  theological  dogmas,  but  never  a  voice  for 
intellectual  liberty  or  the  outraged  rights  of  man.  In  such 
a  state  of  things,  what  else  could  be  the  result  than  disgust 
or  indifference  ?  Certainly  men  could  not  be  expected,  if  a 
time  of  necessity  arose,  to  give  help  to  a  system  that  had 
lost  all  hold  on  their  hearts. 

When,  therefore,  in  the  midst  of  the  wrangling  of  sects, 
in  tho  incomprehensible  jargon  of  Arians,  Nestorians, 
Eutychians,  Monothelites,  Monophysites,  Mariolatrists,  and 
an  anarchy  of  countless  disputants,  there  sounded  through 
the  world,  not  the  miserable  voice  of  the  intriguing  majo- 
rity of  a  council,  but  the  dread  battle-cry,  "  There  is  but 
one  God,"  enforced  by  the  tempest  of  Saracen  armies,  is  it 
surprising  that  the  hubbub  was  hushed  ?  Is  it  surprising 
that  all  Asia  and  Africa  fell  away  ?  In  better  times 
patriotism  is  too  often  made  subordinate  to  religion ;  in 
those  times  it  was  altogether  dead. 

Scarcely  was  Mohammed  buried  when  his  religion  mani- 
fested its  inevitable  destiny  of  overpassing  the  bounds 
of  Arabia.  The  prophet  himself  had  declared  war  against 
the  Roman,  empire,  and,  at  the  head  of  30,000  conquest  of 
men,  advanced  toward  Damascus,  but  his  pur-  Africa, 
pose  was  frustrated  by  ill  health.  His  successor  Abu-Bekr, 
the  first  khalif,  attacked  both  the  Romans  and  the  Persians. 
The  invasion  of  Egypt  occurred  A.D.  638,  the  Arabs  being 
invited  by  the  Copts.  In  a  few  months  the  Mohammedan 
general  Amrou  wrote  to  his  master,  the  khalif,  "  I  have 
taken  Alexandria,  the  great  city  of  the  West."  Treason 
had  done  its  work,  and  Egypt  was  thoroughly  subjugated. 
To  complete  the  conquest  of  Christian  Africa,  many  attacks 


334  PREMATURE  END  OF  THE  [CH.  XL 

were  nevertheless  required.  Abdallah  penetrated  nine 
hundred  miles  to  Tripoli,  but  returned.  Nothing  more 
was  done  for  twenty  years,  because  of  the  disputes  that 
arose  about  the  succession  to  the  khalifate.  Then  Moawi- 
yah  sent  his  lieutenant,  Akbah,  who  forced  his  \vay  to  the 
Atlantic,  but  was  unable  to  hold  the  long  line  of  country 
permanently.  Again  operations  were  undertaken  by 
Abdalmalek,  the  sixth  of  the  Ommiade  dynasty,  A.D.  698 ; 
his  lieutenant,  Hassan,  took  Carthage  by  storm  and  de- 
stroyed it,  the  conquest  being  at  last  thoroughly  completed 
by  Musa,  who  enjoyed  the  double  reputation  of  a  brave 
soldier  and  an  eloquent  preacher.  And  thus  this  region, 
distinguished  by  its  theological  acumen,  to  which  modern 
Europe  owes  so  much,  was  for  ever  silenced  by  the  scimitar. 
It  ceased  to  preach  and  was  taught  to  pray. 

In  this  political  result — the  Arabian  conquest  of  Africa — 
there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  panic  element  which  exercised 
in  the  Vandal  invasion  so  disastrous  an  effect,  came  again 
into  operation.  But,  if  treason  introduced  the  enemy, 
polygamy  secured  the  conquest.  In  Egypt  the  Greek 
population  was  orthodox,  the  natives  were  Jacobites,  more 
willing  to  accept  the  Monotheism  of  Arabia  than  to  bear 
the  tyranny  of  the  orthodox.  The  Arabs,  carrying  out  their 
pv»licy  of  ruining  an  old  metropolis  and  erecting  a  new 
one,  dismantled  Alexandria ;  and  thus  the  patriarchate  of 
that  city  ceased  to  have  any  farther  political  existence  in 
the  Christian  system,  which  for  so  many  ages  had  l>een 
disturbed  by  its  intrigues  and  violence.  The  irresistible 
effect  of  polygamy  in  consolidating  the  new  order  of  things 
soon  t>ecan>e  apparent.  In  little  more  than  a  single  gene- 
ration all  the  children  of  the  north  of  Africa  were  sneaking 
Arabic. 

During  the  khalifates  of  Abu-Bekr  and  Omar,  and  within 
con  u.-t  or  twelve  years  after  the  death  of  Mohammed,  the 
Syria  and  Arabians  had  reduced  thirty -six  thousand  cities, 
towns,  and  castles  in  Persia,  Syria,  Africa,  and 
had  destroyed  four  thousand  churches,  replacing  them  with 
fourteen  hundred  mosques.  In  a  few  years  they  had  ex- 
tended their  rule  a  thousand  miles  east  and  west.  In  Syria, 
ae  in  Africa,  their  early  successes  were  promoted  in  the 
most  effectual  manner  by  treachery.  Damascus  was  taken 


CH.  XI.]  AGE  OF  FAITH  IN  THE  EAST.  335 

after  a  siege  of  a  year.  At  the  battle  of  Aiznadin,  A.D.  633, 
Kalid,  "  the  Sword  of  God,"  defeated  the  army  of  Heraclius, 
the  Romans  losing  fifty  thousand  men  ;  and  this  was  soon 
followed  by  the  fall  of  the  great  cities  Jerusalem,  The  fail  of 
Antioch,  Aleppo,  Tyre,  Tripoli.  On  a  red  camel,  Jerusalem. 
which  carried  a  bag  of  corn  and  one  of  dates,  a  wooden 
dish,  and  a  leather  water-bottle,  the  Khalif  Omar  came 
from  Medina  to  take  formal  possession  of  Jerusalem.  He 
entered  the  Holy  City  riding  by  the  side  of  the  Christian 
patriarch  Sophronius,  whose  capitulation  showed  that  his 
confidence  in  God  was  completely  lost.  The  successor  of 
Mohammed  and  the  Roman  emperor  both  correctly  judged 
how  important  in  the  eyes  of  the  nations  was  the  posses- 
sion of  Jerusalem.  A  belief  that  it  would  be  a  proof  of  the 
authenticity  of  Mohammedanism  led  Omar  to  order  the 
Saracen  troops  to  take  it  at  any  cost. 

The  conquest  of  Syria  and  the  seizure  of  the  Mediterra- 
nean ports  gave  to  the  Arabs  the  command  of  the  sea. 
They  soon  took  Rhodes  and  Cyprus.  The  battle  of  Cadesia 
and  sack  of  Ctesiphon,  the  metropolis  of  Persia,  decided  the 
fate  of  that  kingdom.  Syria  was  thus  completely  reduced 
under  Omar,  the  second  khalif ;  Persia  under  Othman,  the 
third. 

If  it  be  true  that  the  Arabs  burned  the  library  of  Alex- 
andria, there  was  at  that  time  danger  that  their  fanaticism 
would  lend  itself  to  the  Byzantine  system ;  but  it  was  only 
for  a  moment  that  the  khalifs  fell  into  this  evil 
policy.     They  very  soon  became  distinguished  become"! 
patrons  of  learning.     It  has  been  said  that  they  l<?rtte&  «>*• 
overran  the  domains  of  science  as  quickly  as  they 
overran  the  realms  of  their  neighbours.     It  became  cus- 
tomary for  the  first  dignities  of  the  state  to  be  held  by  men 
distinguished  for  their  erudition.      Some  of  the  maxims 
current  show  how  much  literature  was  esteemed.     "  The 
ink  of  the  doctor  is  equally  valuable  with  the  blood  of  the 
martyr."     "  Paradise  is  as  much  for  him  who  has  rightly 
used  the  pen  as  for  him  who  has  fallen  by  the  sword." 
"  The  world  is  sustained  by  four  things  only  :  the  learning 
of  the  wise,  the  justice  of  the  great,  the  prayers  of  the  good, 
and  the  valour  of  the  brave."     Within  twenty-five  years 
after  the  death  of  Mohammed,  under  AH,  the  fourth  khalif, 


336  PREMATURE  END  OF  THE  [CH.  XI 

the  patronage  of  learning  had  become  a  settled  principle 
of  the  Mohammedan  system.  Under  the  khalifa  of  Bagdad 
this  principle  was  thoroughly  carried  out.  The  cultivators 
of  mathematics,  astronomy,  medicine,  and  general  litera- 
ture abounded  in  the  court  of  Almansor,  who  invited  all 
philosophers,  offering  them  his  protection,  whatever  their 
religious  opinions  might  be.  His  successor,  Alraschid,  ia 
said  never  to  have  travelled  without  a  retinue  of  a  hundred 
learned  men.  This  great  sovereign  issued  an  edict  that 
no  mosque  should  be  built  unless  there  was  a  school  attached 
to  it.  Jt  was  he  who  confided  the  superintendence  of  his 
schools  to  the  Nestorian  Masue.  His  successor.  Almaimon, 
was  brought  up  among  Greek  and  Persian  mathematicians, 
philosophers,  and  physicians.  They  continued  his  asso- 
ciates all  his  life.  liy  these  sovereigns  the  establishment 
of  libraries  was  incessantly  prosecuted,  and  tlie  collection 
and  copying  of  manuscripts  properly  organized.  In  all 
the  great  cities  schools  abounded ;  in  Alexandria  there 
were  not  less  than  twenty.  As  might  be  expected,  this 
could  not  take  place  without  exciting  the  indignation  of 
the  old  fanatical  party,  who  not  only  remonstrated  with 
Almaimon,  but  threatened  him  with  the  vengeance  of  God 
for  thus  disturbing  the  faith  of  the  people.  However, 
what  had  thus  been  commenced  as  a  matter  of  profound 
policy  soon  grew  into  a  habit,  and  it  was  observed  that 
whenever  an  emir  managed  to  make  himself  independent, 
he  forthwith  opened  academics. 
The  Arabs  funiish  a  striking  illustration  of  the  successive 

phases  of  national  life.  They  first  come  before 
their  inteUec-  us  as  fetich  worshippers,  having  their  age  of 
toai  develop-  credulity,  their  object  of  superstition  being  the 

black  stone  in  the  temple  at  Mecca.  They  pass 
through  an  age  of  inquiry,  rendering  possible  the  advent 
of  Mohammed.  Then  follows  their  age  of  faith,  the  blind 
fanaticism  of  which  quickly  led  them  to  overspread  all 
adjoining  countries;  and  at  last  comes  their  period  of 
maturity,  their  age  of  reason.  The  striking  feature  of 
their  movement  is  the  quickness  with  which  they  passed 
through  these  successive  phases,  and  the  intensity  of  their 
national  life. 

This  singular  rapidity  of  national  life  was  favoured  by 


CH.  XI.]  AQE  OF  FAITH  IN   THE  EAST.  337 

very  obvious  circumstances.  The  long  and  desolating  wars 
between  Heraclius  and  Chosroes  had  altogether  destroyed 
the  mercantile  relations  of  the  Roman  and  Persian  empires, 
and  had  thrown  the  entire  Oriental  and  African  trade  into 
the  hands  of  the  Arabs.  As  a  merchant  Mohammed 
himself  makes  his  first  appearance.  The  first  we  hear  in 
his  history  are  the  journeys  he  has  made  as  the  factor  of 
the  wealthy  Chadizah.  In  these  expeditions  with  the 
caravans  to  Damascus  and  other  Syrian  cities,  he  was 
brought  in  contact  with  Jews  and  men  of  business,  who, 
from  the  nature  of  their  pursuits,  were  of  more  enlarged 
views  than  mere  Arab  chieftains  or  the  petty  tradesmen  of 
Arab  towns.  Through  such  agency  the  first  impetus  was 
given.  As  to  the  rapid  success,  its  causes  are  in 

i-i  -i    •  .      ,    -I  11  .          Causes  of  the 

like  manner  so  plain  as  to  take  away  all  surprise.  8preai  of  Mo- 
It  is  no  wonder  that  in  fifty  years,  as  Abderrah-  hammedan- 
man  wrote  to  the  khalif,  not  only  had  the  tribute 
from  the  entire  north  of  Africa  ceased,  through  the 
population  having  become  altogether  Mohammedan,  but 
that  the  Moors  boasted  an  Arab  descent  as  their  greatest 
glory.  For,  besides  the  sectarian  animosities  on  which  I 
have  dwelt  as  facilitating  the  first  conquest  of  the 
Christians,  and  the  dreadful  shock  that  had  been  given  by 
the  capture  of  the  Holy  City,  Jerusalem,  the  insulting  and 
burning  the  sepulchre  of  our  Saviour,  and  the  carrying 
away  of  his  cross  as  a  trophy  by  the  Persians,  there  were 
other  very  powerful  causes.  For  many  years  the  taxa- 
tion imposed  by  the  Emperors  of  Constantinople  on  their 
subjects  in  Asia  and  Africa  had  been  not  only  excessive 
and  extortionate,  but  likewise  complicated.  This  the 
khalifs  replaced  by  a  simple  well-defined  tribute  of  far  less 
amount.  Thus,  in  the  case  of  Cyprus,  the  sum  paid  to  the 
khalif  was  only  half  of  what  it  had  been  to  the  emperor; 
and,  indeed,  the  lower  or.ders  were  never  made  to  feel  the 
bitterness  of  conquest ;  the  blows  fell  on  the  ecclesiastics, 
not  on  the  population,  and  between  them  there  was  but 
little  sympathy.  In  the  eyes  of  the  ignorant  nations  the 
prestige  of  the  patriarchs  and  bishops  was  utterly  destroyed 
by  their  detected  helplessness  to  prevent  the  capture  and 
insult  of  the  sacred  places.  On  the  payment  of  a  trifling 
sum  tbe  conqueror  guaranteed  to  the  Christian  ard  the 
VOL.  I.— 10 


338  PREMATURE  END   OF   THE  [oil.  XL 

Jew  absolute  security  for  their  worship.  An  equivalent 
was  given  for  a  price.  Eeligioiis  freedom  was  bought  with 
money.  Numerous  instances  might  be  given  of  the 
scrupulous  integrity  with  which  the  Arab  commanders 
complied  with  their  part  of  the  contract.  The  example  set 
by  Omar  on  the  steps  of  the  Church  of  the  Resurrection 
was  followed  by  Moawiyah,  who  actually  rebuilt  the 
church  of  Edessa  for  his  Christian  subjects  ;  and  by  Abdul- 
malek,  who,  when  he  had  commenced  converting  that  of 
Damascus  into  a  mosque,  forthwith  desisted  on  finding 
that  the  Christians  were  entitled  to  it  by  the  terms  of  the 
capitulation.  If  these  things  were  done  in  the  first  fervour 
of  victory,  the  principles  on  which  they  depended  were  all 
the  more  powerful  after  the  Arabs  had  become  tinctured 
with  Nestorian  and  Jewish  influences,  and  were  a  learned 
nation.  It  is  related  of  Ali,  the  son-in-law  of  Mohammed, 
and  the  fourth  successor  in  the  khalifate,  that  he  gave 
himself  up  to  letters.  Among  his  sayings  are  recorded 
such  as  these :  "  Eminence  in  science  is  the  highest  of 
honours  ;"  "  He  dies  not  who  gives  life  to  learning ;"  "  The 
greatest  ornament  of  a  man  is  erudition."  When  the 
sovereign  felt  and  expressed  such  sentiments,  it  was  im- 
possible but  that  a  liberal  policy  should  prevail. 

Besides  these  there  were  other  incentives  not  less  power- 
ful. To  one  whoso  faith  sat  lightly  upon  him,  or  who 
valued  it  less  than  the  tribute  to  be  paid,  it  only  re- 
quired the  repetition  of  a  short  sentence  acknowledging 
the  unity  of  God  and  the  divine  mission  of  the  prophet, 
and  he  forthwith  became,  though  a  captive  or  a  slave,  the 
equal  and  friend  of  his  conqueror.  Doubtless  many 
thousands  were  under  these  circumstances  carried  away. 
As  respects  the  female  sex,  the  Arab  system  was  very  far 
from  being  oppressive ;  some  have  even  asserted  that  "  the 
Christian  women  found  in  the  seraglios  a  delightful 
retreat."  But  above  all,  polygamy  acted  most  effectually 
ia  consolidating  the  conquests;  the  largo  families  that 
were  raised — some  are  mentioned  of  more  than  one 
hundred  and  eighty  children — compressed  into  the  course 
of  a  few  years  events  that  would  otherwise  have  taken 
many  generations  for  their  accomplishment.  These  children 
gloried  in  their  Arab  descent,  and,  being  taught  to  speak 


C1I.  XI. J  AGE  OF  FAITH   IN   THE   EAST.  339 

the  language  of  their  conquering  fathers,  became  to  all 
intents  and  purposes  Arabs.  This  diffusion  of  the  language 
was  sometimes  expedited  by  the  edicts  of  the  khalifs ;  thus 
Alwalid  I.  prohibited  the  use  of  Greek,  directing  Arabic 
to  be  employed  in  its  stead. 

If  thus  without  difficulty  we  recognise  the  causes  which 
led  to  the  rapid  diffusion  of  Arab  power,  we  also  without 
difficulty   recognise   those   which   led    to    its    check   and 
eventual  dissolution.     Arab   conquest   implied,   from   the 
scale  on  which  it  was  pursued,  the  forthgoing  of 
the  whole  nation.    It  could  only  be  accomplished,  S-estSoffM»-e 
and  in   a  temporary  manner   sustained,  by   an  jiammeda  - 
excessive  and  incessant  drain  of  the  native  Arab 
population.     That  immobility,  or,  at  best,  that  slow  pro- 
gress the  nation  had  for  so  many  ages  displayed,  was  at 
an  end,  society  was  moved  to  its  foundations,  a  fanatical 
delirium  possessed  it,  the  greatest  and  boldest  enterprises 
were  entered  upon  without  hesitation,  the  wildest  hopes 
or  passions  of  men  might  be  speedily  gratified,  wealth  and 
beauty  were  the  tangible  rewards  of  valour  in  this  life,  to 
say  nothing  of  Paradise  in  the  next.     But  such  an  outrush 
of  a  nation  in  all  directions  implied  the  quick  growth  of 
diverse  interests   and  opposing  policies.     The  necessary 
consequence   of  the   Arab   system   was    subdivision    and 
breaking  up.     The  circumstances  of  its  growth 
rendered  it  certain  that  a  decon- position  would  j1  tpprationd'of 
take  place  in  the  political,  and  not,  as  was  the  thre  Afibian 
case  of  the  ecclesiast-cal  Roman  system,  in  the 
theological  direction.     All  this  is  illustrated  both  in  the 
earlier  and  later  Saracenic  history. 

War  makes  a  people  run  through  its  phases  of  existence 
fast.     It  would  have  taken  the  Arabs  many  Eff 
thousand  years  to  have  advanced  intellectually  low  Arab 
as  far  as  they  did  in  a  single  century,  had  they,  tla8s- 
as  a  nation,  remained  in  profound  peace.     They  did  not 
merely  shake  off  that  dead  weight  which  clogs  the  move- 
ment of  a  nation — its  inert  mass  of  common  people ;  they 
converted  that  mass  into  a  living  force.    National  progress 
is  the  sum  of  individual  progress  ;  national  immobility  the 
result   of  individual   quiescence.     Arabian    life   was   run 
through  with  rapidity,  because  an  unrestrained  career  was 


340  PUEMATUKE   END   OF  THE  [CH.  XI. 

opened  to  every  man ;  and  yet,  quick  as  the  movement  was, 
it  manifested  all  those  unavoidable  phases  through  which, 
whether  its  motion  be  swift  or  slow,  humanity  must 
unavoidably  pass. 

Arabian  influence,  thus  imposing  itself  on  Africa  and 
Review  of  the  Asia  by  military  successes,  and  threatening  even 
Koran.  Constantinople,  rested  essentially  on  an  intel- 

lectual basis,  the  value  of  which  it  is  needful  for  us  to 
consider.  The  Koran,  which  is  that  basis,  has  exercised  a 
great  control  over  the  destinies  of  mankind,  and  still  serves 
as  a  rule  of  life  to  a  very  large  portion  of  our  race. 
Considering  the  asserted  origin  of  this  book — indirectly 
from  God  himself — we  might  justly  expect  that  it  would 
bear  to  be  tried  by  any  standard  that  man  can  apply,  and 
vindicate  its  truth  and  excellence  in  the  ordeal  of  human 
criticism.  In  our  estimate  of  it  we  must  con- 
honiog^iicous-  stantly  bear  in  mind  that  it  does  not  profess  to 
ness  and  com-  ^  successive  revelations  made  at  intervals  of 

pleteness.  ,  .  .  _ 

ages  and  on  various  occasions,  but  a  complete 
production  delivered  to  one  man.  We  ought,  therefore,  to 
look  for  universality,  completeness,  perfection.  We  might 
expect  that  it  would  present  us  with  just  views  of  the 
nature  and  position  of  this  world  in  which  we  live,  and 
Thecharac-  that,  whether  dealing  with  the  spiritual  or 
tore  u  ought,  the  material,  it  would  put  to  shame  the  most 
hav?  present-  celebrated  productions  of  human  genius,  as  the 

magnificent  mechanism  of  the  heavens  and  the 
beautiful  living  forms  of  the  earth  are  superior  to  the  vain 
contrivances  of  man.  Far  in  advance  of  all  that  has  been 
written  by  the  sages  of  India,  or  the  philosophers  of  Greece, 
on  points  connected  with  the  origin,  nature,  and  destiny  of 
the  universe,  its  dignity  of  conception  and  excellence  of 
expression  should  be  in  harmony  with  the  greatness  of  the 
subject  with  which  it  is  concerned. 

We  might  expect  that  it  should  propound  with  au- 
thority, and  definitively  settle  those  all-important  problems 
which  have  exercised  the  mental  powers  of  the  ablest  men 
of  Asia  and  Europe  for  so  many  centuries,  and  which  are 
at  the  foundation  of  all  faith  and  all  philosophy ;  that  it 
should  distinctly  tell  us  in  unmistakable  language  what  is 
God,  what  is  the  world,  what  is  the  soul,  ;md  whether  niaii 


CH.  XI.]  AGE  OF  FAITH   IN  THE  EAST.  341 

has  any  criterion  of  truth;  that  it  should  explain  to  ns 
how  evil  can  exist  in  a  world  the  Maker  of  which  is  omni- 
potent and  altogether  good ;  that  it  should  reveal  to  us  in 
what  the  affairs  of  men  are  fixed  by  Destiny,  in  what  by 
free-will ;  that  it  should  teach  us  whence  we  came,  what  is 
the  object  of  our  continuing  here,  what  is  to  become  of  us 
hereafter.  And,  since  a  written  work  claiming  a  divino 
origin  must  necessarily  accredit  itself  even  to  those  most 
reluctant  to  receive  it,  its  internal  evidences  becoming 
stronger  and  not  weaker  with  the  strictness  of  the  ex- 
amination to  which  they  are  submitted,  it  ought  1o  deal 
with  those  things  that  may  be  demonstrated  by  the 
increasing  knowledge  and  genius  of  man,  anticipating 
therein  his  conclusions.  Such  a  work,  noble  as  may  be  its 
origin,  must  not  refuse,  but  court  the  test  of  natural 
philosophy,  regarding  it  not  as  an  antagonist,  bxit  as  its 
best  support.  As  years  pass  on,  and  human  science  becomes 
more  exact  and  more  comprehensive,  its  conclusions  must 
be  found  in  unison  therewith.  When  occasion  arises,  it 
should  furnish  us  at  least  the  foreshadowings  of  the  great 
truths  discovered  by  astronomy  and  geology,  not  offering 
for  them  the  wild  fictions  of  earlier  ages,  inventions  of  the 
infancy  of  man.  It  should  tell  us  how  suns  and  worlds  are 
distributed  in  infinite  space,  and  how,  in  their  successions, 
they  come  forth  in  limitless  time.  It  should  say  how  far 
the  dominion  of  God  is  carried  out  by  law,  and  what  is  the 
point  at  which  it  is  his  pleasure  to  resort  to  his  own  good 
providence  or  his  arbitrary  will.  How  grand  the  descrip- 
tion of  this  magnificent  universe  written  by  the  Omnipotent 
hand !  Of  man  it  should  set  forth  his  relations  to  other 
living  beings,  his  place  among  them,  his  privileges,  and 
responsibilities.  It  should  not  leave  him  to  grope  his  way 
through  the  vestiges  of  Greek  philosophy,  and  to  miss  the 
truth  at  last ;  but  it  should  teach  him  wherein  true  know- 
ledge consists,  anticipating  the  physical  science,  physical 
power,  and  physical  well-being  of  our  own  times,  nay, 
even  unfolding  for  our  benefit  things  that  we  are  still 
ignorant  of.  The  discussion  of  subjects,  so  many  and  so 
high,  is  not  outside  the  scope  of  a  work  of  such  pretensions. 
Its  manner  of  dealing  with  them  is  the  only  criterion  it 
can  offer  of  its  authenticity  to  succeeding  times. 


342  PREMATURE   END  OF   THE  [CH.  XI. 

Tried  by  such  a  standard,  the  Koran  altogether  fails. 
In  its  philosophy  it  is  incomparably  inferior  to  the  writings 
Defects  of  the  of  Chakia  Mouni,  the  founder  of  Buddhism ;  in 
Koran.  j^s  science  it  is  absolutely  worthless.  On  specu- 

lative or  doubtful  things  it  is  copious  enough ;  but  in  the 
exact,  where  a  test  can  be  applied  to  it,  it  totally  fails. 
Its  astronomy,  cosmogony,  physiology,  are  so  puerile  as  to 
invite  our  mirth  if  the  occasion  did  not  forbid.  They 
belong  to  the  old  times  of  the  world,  the  morning  of  human 
knowledge.  The  earth  is  firmly  balanced  in  its  seat  by 
the  weight  of  the  mountains ;  the  sky  is  supported  over  it 
like  a  dome,  and  we  are  instructed  in  the  wisdom  and  power 
of  God  by  being  told  to  find  a  crack  in  it  if  we  can. 
Ranged  in  stories,  seven  in  number,  are  the  heavens,  the 
highest  being  the  habitation  of  God,  whose  throne— for  the 
Koran  does  not  reject  Assyrian  ideas — is  sustained  by 
winged  animal  forms.  The  shooting-stars  are  pieces  of 
red-hot  stone  thrown  by  angels  at  impure  spirits  when 
they  approach  too  closely.  Of  God  the  Koran  is  full  of 
praise,  setting  forth,  often  in  not  unworthy  imagery,  his 
majesty.  Though  it  bitterly  denounces  those  who  give 
him  any  equals,  and  assures  them  that  their  sin 
will  never  be  forgiven  ;  that  in  the  judgment-day 
they  must  answer  the  fearful  question,  "  Where  are  my 
companions  about  whom  ye  disputed  ?"  though  it  inculcates 
an  absolute  dependence  on  the  mercy  of  God,  and  denounces 
as  criminals  all  those  who  make  a  merchandise  of  religion, 
its  ideas  of  the  Deity  are  altogether  anthropomorphic.  He 
is  only  a  gigantic  man  living  in  a  paradise.  In  this 
respect,  though  exceptional  passages  might  be  cited,  the 
reader  rises  from  a  perusal  of  the  114  chapters  of  the  Koran 
with  a  final  impression  that  they  have  given  him  low  and 
unworthy  thoughts ;  nor  is  it  surprising  that  one  of  the 
Mohammedan  sects  reads  it  in  such  a  way  as  to  find  no 
difficulty  in  asserting  that,  "  from  the  crown  of  the  head 
to  the  breast  God  is  hollow,  and  from  the  breast  downward 
he  is  solid ;  that  he  has  curled  black  hair,  and  roars  like  a 
lion  at  every  watch  of  the  night."  The  unity  asserted  by 
Mohammed  is  a  unity  in  special  contradistinction  to  the 
Trinity  of  the  Christians,  and  the  doctrine  of  a  divine 
generation.  Our  Saviour  is  never  called  the  Son  of  God, 


GH.  XI.]  AGE   OF   FAITH   IN   THE   EAST.  343 

but  always  the  son  of  Mary.  Throughout  there  is  a  per- 
petual acceptance  of  the  delusion  of  the  human  its  viows  of 
destiny  of  the  universe.  As  to  man,  Mohammed  man- 
is  diffuse  enough  respecting  a  future  state,  speaking  with 
clearness  of  a  resurrection,  the  judgment-day,  Paradise,  the 
torment  of  hell,  the  worm  that  never  dies,  the  pains  that 
never  end;  but,  with  all  this  precise  description  of  the 
future,  there  are  many  errors  as  to  the  past.  If  modesty 
did  not  render  it  unsuitable  to  speak  of  such  topics  here, 
it  might  be  shown  how  feeble  is  his  physiology  when  he 
has  occasion  to  allude  to  the  origin  or  generation  of  man. 
He  is  hardly  advanced  beyond  the  ideas  of  Thales.  One 
who  is  so  untrustworthy  a  guide  as  to  things  that  are  past, 
cannot  be  very  trustworthy  as  to  events  that  are  to  come. 

Of  the  literary  execution  of  his  work,  it  is,  perhaps, 
scarcely  possible  to  judge  fairly  from  a  transla-  j,8  merary 
tion.  It  is  said  to  be  the  oldest  prose  cornposi-  inferiority 
tion  among  the  Arabs,  by  whom  Mohammed's  wulTthe 
boast  of  the  unapproachable  excellence  of  his  Bible- 
work  is  almost  universally  sustained  ;  but  it  must  not  bo 
concealed  that  there  have  been  among  them  very  learned 
men  who  have  held  it  in  light  esteem.  Its  most  celebrated 
passages,  as  those  on  the  nature  of  God,  in  Chapters  II., 
XXIV.,  will  bear  no  comparison  with  parallel  ones  in  the 
Psalms  and  Book  of  Job.  In  the  narrative  style,  the  story 
of  Joseph,  in  Chapter  XII.,  compared  with  the  same  in- 
cidents related  in  Genesis,  shows  a  like  inferiority.  Mo- 
hammed also  adulterates  his  work  with  many  Christian 
legends,  derived  probably  from  the  apocryphal  gospel  of 
St.  Barnabas ;  he  mixes  with  many  of  his  own  inventions 
the  scripture  account  of  the  temptation  of  Adam,  the 
Deluge,  Jonah  and  the  whale,  enriching  the  whole  with 
stories  like  the  later  Night  Entertainments  of  his  country, 
the  seven  sleepers,  Gog  and  Magog,  and  all  the  wonders  of 
genii,  sorcery,  and  charms. 

An  impartial  reader  of  the  Koran  may  doubtless  be  sur- 
prised that  so  feeble  a  production  should  serve  its  purpose 
so  well.     But  the  theory  of  religion  is  one  thing,  CaU8(,g  of  its 
the  practice   another.     The  Koran  abounds  in  surprising 
excellent  moral  suggestions  and  precepts ;  its  influence- 
composition  is  so  fragmentary  that  we  cannot  turn  to  a 


344  PREMATURE   END  OF   THE  [CH.  XL 

single  page  without  finding  maxims  of  which  all  men  must 
approve.  This  fragmentary  construction  yields  texts,  and 
mottoes,  and  rules  complete  in  themselves,  suitable  for 
common  men  in  any  of  the  incidents  of  life.  There  is  a 
perpetual  insisting  on  the  necessity  of  prayer,  an  inculca- 
tion of  mercy,  almsgiving,  justice,  fasting,  pilgrimage,  and 
other  good  works ;  institutions  respecting  conduct,  both 
social  and  domestic,  debts,  witnesses,  marriage,  children, 
wine,  and  the  like;  above  all,  a  constant  stimulation  to  do 
battle  with  the  infidel  and  blasphemer.  For  life  as  it 
passes  in  Asia,  there  is  hardly  a  condition  in  which  pas- 
sages from  the  Koran  cannot  be  recalled  svii  table  for 
instruction,  admonition,  consolation,  encouragement.  To 
the  Asiatic  and  to  the  African,  such  devotional  fragments 
are  of  far  more  use  than  any  sustained  theological  doctrine 
The  mental  constitution  of  Mohammed  did  not  enable  him 
to  handle  important  philosophical  questions  with  the  well- 
balanced  ability  of  the  great  Greek  and  Indian  writers, 
but  he  has  never  been  surpassed  in  adaptation  to  the 
spiritual  wants  of  humble  life,  making  even  his  fearful 
fatalism  administer  thereto.  A  pitiless  destiny  is  awaiting 
us ;  yet  the  prophet  is  uncertain  what  it  may  be.  "  Unto 
every  nation  a  fixed  time  is  decreed.  Death  will  overtake 
us  even  in  lofty  towers,  but  God  only  knoweth  the  place 
in  which  a  man  shall  die."  After  many  an  admonition  of 
the  resurrection  and  the  judgment-day,  many  a  promise  of 
Paradise  and  threat  of  hell,  he  plaintively  confesses,  "  I  do 
not  know  what  will  be  done  with  you  or  me  hereafter." 

The  Koran  thus  betrays  a  human,  and  not  a  very  noble 
its  true  intellectual  origin.  It  does  not,  however,  follow 
nature.  that  its  author  was,  as  is  so  often  asserted,  a 
mere  impostor.  He  reiterates  again  and  again,  I  am 
nothing  more  than  a  public  preacher.  He  defends,  not 
always  without  acerbity,  his  work  from  those  who,  even  in 
his  own  life,  stigmatized  it  as  a  confused  heap  of  dreams, 
or,  what  is  worse,  a  forgery.  He  is  not  the  only  man  who 
has  supposed  himself  to  be  the  subject  of  supernatural  and 
divine  communications,  for  this  is  a  condition  of  disease 
to  which  any  one,  by  fasting  and  mental  anxiety,  may  be 
reduced. 

In  what  I  have  thus  said  respecting  a  work  held  by  so 


CH.  XI.]  AGE   OF   FAITH  IN   THE  EAST.  345 

many  millions  of  men  as  a  revelation  from  God,  I  have 
endeavoured  to  speak  with  respect,  and  yet  with  freedom, 
constantly  bearing  in  mind  how  deeply  to  this  book  Asia 
and  Africa  are  indebted  for  daily  guidance,  how  deeply     \ 
Europe  and  America  for  the  light  of  science. 

As  might  be  expected,  the  doctrines  of  the  Koran  have 
received  many  fictitious  additions  and  sectarian  interpre- 
tations in  the  course  of  ages.  In  the  popular  PopularMo. 
superstition  angels  and  genii  largely  figure.  hamm<(Un- 
The  latter,  being  of  a  grosser  fabric,  eat,  drink,  1S 
propagate  their  kind,  are  of  two  sorts,  good  and  bad,  and 
existed  long  before  men,  having  occupied  the  earth  before 
Adam.  Immediately  after  death,  two  greenish,  livid  angels, 
Monkir  and  Nekkar,  examine  every  corpse  as  to  its  faith  in 
God  and  Mohammed ;  but  the  soul,  having  been  separated 
from  the  body  by  tho  angel  of  death,  enters  upon  an  inter- 
mediate state,  awaiting  the  resurrection.  There  is,  how- 
ever, much  diversity  of  opinion  as  to  its  precise  disposal 
before  the  judgment-day :  some  think  that  it  hovers  near 
the  grave ;  some,  that  it  sinks  into  the  well  Zemzem ; 
some,  that  it  retiree  into  the  trumpet  of  the  Angel  of  the  Ee- 
surrection  ;  the  difficulty  apparently  being  that  any  final 
disposal  before  the  day  of  judgment  would  be  anticipatory 
of  that  great  event,  if,  indeed,  it  would  not  render  it  need- 
less. As  to  the  resurrection,  some  believe  it  to  be  merely 
spiritual,  others  corporeal ;  the  latter  asserting  that  the  os 
coccygis,  or  last  bone  of  the  spinal  column,  will  serve,  as 
it  were,  as  a  germ,  and  that,  vivified  by  a  rain  of  forty 
days,  the  body  will  sprout  from  it.  Among  the  signs  of 
the  approaching  resurrection  will  be  the  rising  of  the  sun 
in  the  West.  It  will  be  ushered  in  by  three  blasts  of  a 
trumpet :  the  first,  known  as  the  blast  of  consternation, 
will  shake  the  earth  to  its  centre,  and  extinguish  the  sun 
and  stars;  the  second,  the  blast  of  extermination,  will 
annihilate  all  material  things  except  Paradise,  hell,  and 
the  throne  of  God.  Forty  years  subsequently,  the  angel 
Israfil  will  sound  the  blast  of  resurrection.  From  his 
trumpet  there  will  be  blown  forth  the  countless  myriads 
of  souls  who  have  taken  refuge  therein  or  lain  concealed. 
The  day  of  judgment  has  now  come.  The  Koran  con- 
tradicts itself  as  to  the  length  of  this  day ;  in  one  place 

16* 


340  PREMATURE   END  OF  THE  [CH.  XL 

making  it  a  thousand,  in  another  fifty  thousand  years. 
Most  Mohammedans  incline  to  adopt  the  longer  period, 
since  angels,  genii,  men,  and  animals  have  to  be  tried.  As 
to  men,  they  will  rise  in  their  natural  state,  but  naked ; 
white  winged  camels,  with  saddles  of  gold,  awaiting  tho 
saved.  When  the  partition  is  made,  the  wicked  will  be 
oppressed  with  an  intolerable  heat,  caused  by  the  sun,  which, 
having  been  called  into  existence  again,  will  approach 
within  a  mile,  provoking  a  sweat  to  issue  from  them,  and 
this,  according  to  their  demerits,  will  immerse  them  from 
the  ankles  to  the  mouth  ;  but  the  righteous  will  be  screened 
by  the  shadow  of  the  throne  of  God.  The  judge  will  be 
seated  in  the  clouds,  the  books  open  before  him,  and  every- 
thing in  its  turn  called  on  to  account  for  its  deeds.  For 
greater  dispatch,  the  angel  Gabriel  will  hold  forth  his 
balance,  one  scale  of  which  hangs  over  Paradise  and  ono 
over  hell.  Jn  these  all  works  are  weighed.  As  soon  as 
the  sentence  is  delivered,  the  assembly,  in  a  long  file,  will 
pass  over  the  bridge  Al-Sirat.  It  is  as  sharp  as  the  edge 
of  a  sword,  and  laid  over  the  mouth  of  hell.  Mohammed 
and  his  followers  will  successfully  pass  the  perilous  ordeal ; 
but  the  sinners,  giddy  with  terror,  will  drop  into  the  place 
of  torment.  The  blessed  will  receive  their  first  taste  of 
happiness  at  a  pond  which  is  supplied  by  silver  pipes  from 
the  river  Al-Cawthor.  The  soil  of  Paradise  is  of  musk. 
Its  rivers  tranquilly  flow  over  pebbles  of  rubies  and 
emeralds.  From  tents  of  hollow  pearls,  tho  Houris,  or 
girls  of  Paradise,  will  come  forth,  attended  by  troops  of 
beautiful  boys.  Each  b'aint  will  have  eighty  thousand 
servants  and  seventy-two  girls.  To  these,  some  of  tho 
more  merciful  Mussulmans  add  the  wives  they  have  had 
upon  earth ;  but  tho  grimly  orthodox  assert  that  hell  is 
already  nearly  filled  with  women.  How  can  it  be  other- 
wise since  they  are  not  permitted  to  pray  in  a  mosque 
upon  earth  ?  I  have  not  space  to  describe  the  silk  brocades, 
the  green  clothing,  the  soft  carpets,  the  banquets,  the  per- 
petual music  and  songs.  From  the  glorified  body  all  im- 
purities will  escape,  not  as  they  did  during  life,  but  in  a 
fragrant  perspiration  of  camphor  and  musk.  No  one  will 
complain  I  am  weary ;  no  one  will  say  1  am  sick. 

From  the  contradictions,  puerilities,  and  impossibilities 


CH.  XI.]  AGE  OF   FAITH   IN   THE   EAST.  347 

indicated  in  the  preceding  paragraphs,  it  may  be  antici- 
pated that  the  faith  of  Mohammed  has  been  broken  into 
many  sects.  Of  such  it  is  said  that  not  less  than  The  Mohnm- 
seventy-three  may  be  numbered.  Some,  as  the  medun  sects- 
Sonnites,  are  guided  by  traditions ;  some  occupy  themselves 
with  philosophical  difficulties,  the  existence  of  evil  in  the 
world,  the  attributes  of  God,  absolute  predestination  and 
eternal  damnation,  the  invisibility  and  non-corporeality  of 
God,  his  capability  of  local  motion :  these  and  other  such 
topics  furnish  abundant  opportunity  for  sectarian  dispute. 
As  if  to  show  how  the  essential  principles  of  the  Koran 
may  be  departed  from  by  those  who  still  profess  to  be 
guided  by  it,  there  are,  among  the  Shiites,  those  who 
believe  that  Ali  was  an  incarnation  of  God;  that  he  was 
in  existence  before  the  creation  of  things;  that  he  never 
died,  but  ascended  to  heaven,  and  will  return  again  in  the 
clouds  to  judge  the  world.  But  the  great  Mohammedan 
philosophers,  simply  accepting  the  doctrine  of  the  Oneness 
of  God  as  the  only  thing  of  which  man  can  be  certain,  look 
upon  all  the  rest  as  idle  fables,  having,  however,  this 
political  use,  that  they  furnish  contention,  and  therefore 
occupation  to  disputatious  sectarians,  and  consolation  to 
illiterate  minds. 

Thus  settled  on  the  north  of  Africa  the  lurid  phantom 
of  the  Arabian  crescent,  one  horn  reaching  to  the  Bos- 
phorus  and  one  pointing  beyond  the  Pyrenees.  For  a 
while  it  seemed  that  the  portentous  meteor  would  increase 
to  the  full,  and  that  all  Europe  would  be  enveloped. 
Christianity  had  lost  for  ever  the  most  interest- 
ing countries  over  which  her  influence  had  once  hamm°dan°~ 
spread,  Africa,  Egypt,  Syria,  the  Holy  Land,  £'".»" christ- 
Asia  Minor,  Spain.  She  was  destined,  in  the 
end,  to  lose  in  the  same  manner  the  metropolis  of  the  East. 
In  exchange  for  these  ancient  and  illustrious  regions,  she 
fell  back  on  Gaul,  Germany,  Britain,  Scandinavia.  In 
those  savage  countries,  what  were  there  to  be  offered  as 
substitutes  for  the  great  capitals,  illustrious  in  ecclesiastical 
history,  for  ever  illustrious  in  the  records  of  the  human 
race — Carthage,  Alexandria,  Jerusalem,  Antioch,  Constanti- 
nople ?  It  was  an  evil  exchange.  The  labours,  intellectual 


348  PREMATURE   END   OF   FAITH   IN   THE   EAST.        [CH.  XI. 

and  physical,  of  which  those  cities  had  once  been  the 
scene ;  the  preaching,  and  penances,  and  prayers  so  lavishly 
expended  in  them,  had  not  produced  the  anticipated,  the 
asserted  result.  In  theology  and  morality  the  people  had 
pursued  a  descending  course.  Patriotism  was  extinct. 
They  surrendered  the  state  to  preserve  their  sect;  their 
treason  was  rewarded  by  subjugation. 

From  these  melancholy  events  we  may  learn  that  the 

principles  on  which  the  moral  world  is  governed 

thefcuu^of1   are  analogous  to  those  which  obtain  in    the 

historic  physical.  It  is  not  by  incessant  divine  inter- 
events.  r  •'.,.  ,  .  ,  ,  J  ,  ,  ,, 

positions,  which  produce  breaches  in  the  con- 
tinuity of  historic  action ;  it  is  not  by  miracles  and 
prodigies  that  the  course  of  events  is  determined ;  but 
affairs  follow  each  other  in  the  relation  of  cause  and  effect. 
The  maximum  development  of  early  Christianity  coincided 
with  the  boundaries  of  the  Eoman  empire ;  the  ecclesias- 
tical condition  depended  on  the  political,  and,  indeed,  was 
its  direct  consequence  and  issue.  The  loss  of  Africa  and 
Asia  was,  in  like  manner,  connected  with  the  Arabian 
movement,  though  it  would  have  been  easy  to  prevent  that 
catastrophe,  and  to  preserve  those  continents  to  the  faith 
by  the  smallest  of  those  innumerable  miracles  of  which 
Church  history  is  full,  and  which  were  often  performed  on 
unimportant  and  obscure  occasions.  But  not  even  one  such 
miracle  was  vouchsafed,  though  an  angel  might  have 
worthily  descended.  I  know  of  no  event  in  the  history  of 
our  race  on  which  a  thoughtful  man  may  more  profitably 
meditate  than  on  this  loss  of  Africa  and  Asia.  It  may 
remove  from  his  mind  many  erroneous  ideas,  and  lead 
him  to  take  a  more  elevated,  a  more  philosophical,  and, 
therefore,  more  correct  view  of  the  course  of  earthly  affairs. 


CHAPTER  XH. 
THE  AGE  OF  FAITH  IN  THE  WEST. 

Tlie  Age  of  Faith  in  the  West  is  marked  by  Paganism. — The  Aralian 
military  Attacks  produce  the  Isolation  and  permit  the  Independence  of 
the  Bishop  of  Rome. 

GREGORY  THE  GREAT  organizes  the  Ideas  of  his  Age,  materializes  Faith, 
allies  it  to  Art,  rejects  Science,  and  creates  the  Italian  Form  of 
Religion. 

An  Alliance  of  the  Papacy  with  France  diffuses  that  Form. — Political 
History  of  the  Agreement  and  Conspiracy  of  the  Prankish  Kings  and 
the  Pope. — The  resulting  Consolidation  of  the  new  Dynasty  in  France, 
and  Diffusion  of  Roman  Ideas. — Conversion  of  Europe. 

The  Value  of  the  Italian  Form  of  Religion  determined  from  the  papal 
Biography. 

FROM  the  Age  of  Faith  in  the  East,  I  have  now  to  turn  to 
the  Age  of  Faith  in  the  West.     The  former,  as  we  have 
seen,  ended   prematurely,  through  a  metamor-  TheA  eof 
phosis  of  the  populations  by  military  operations,  Faith  in  the 
conquests,   polygamy;    the  latter,   under  more  West' 
favourable   circumstances,    gradually   completed  its   pre- 
destined phases,  and,  after  the  lapse  of  many  centuries, 
passed  into  the  Age  of  Reason. 

If  so  many  recollections  of  profound  interest  cluster 
round  Jerusalem,  "the  Holy  City"  of  the  East,  many 
scarcely  inferior  are  connected  with  Rome,  "  the  Eternal 
City"  of  the  West. 

The  Byzantine  system,  which,  having  originated  in  the 
policy  of  an  ambitious  soldier  struggling  for  is  essentially 
supreme  power,  and  in  the  devices  of  ecclesiastics  marked  by 

•     r  i  r-  j-'x  1.    j  j   -j.     ir>  the  pagamza- 

in tolerant  of  any  competitors,  had  spread  itself  tion  of  re- 
ull  over  the  eastern  and  southern  portions  of  the  l!gion- 


350  THE   AGE  OF  FAITH    IX   THE   WEST.  [OH.  XII. 

Koman  empire,  and  with  its  hatred  of  human  knowledge 
and  degraded  religious  ideas  and  practices,  had  been 
adopted  at  last  even  in  Italy.  Not  by  the  Romans,  for 
they  had  ceased  to  exist,  but  by  the  medley  of  Goths  and 
half-breeds,  the  occupants  of  that  peninsula.  Gregory  the 
Great  is  the  incarnation  of  the  ideas  of  this  debased 
population.  That  evil  system,  so  carefully  nurtured  by 
Constantine  and  cherished  by  all  the  Oriental  bishops,  had 
been  cut  down  by  the  axe  of  the  Vandal,  the  Persian,  the 
Arab,  in  its  native  seats,  but  the  offshoot  of  it  that  had 
been  planted  in  Rome  developed  spontaneously  with  unex- 
pected luxuriance,  and  cast  its  dark  shadow  over  Europe 
for  many  centuries.  He  who  knew  what  Christianity  had 
been  in  the  apostolic  days,  might  look  with  boundless 
surprise  on  what  was  now  ingrafted  upon  it,  and  was 
passing  under  its  name. 

In  the  last  chapter  we  have  seen  how,  through  the 
Vandal  invasion,  Africa  was  lost  to  the  empire — • 
losTof  Airicu  &  dire  calamity,  for,  of  all  the  provinces,  it  had 
on  events  ui  been  the  least  expensive  and  the  most  pro- 
ductive ;  it  yielded  men,  money,  and,  what  was 
perhaps  of  more  importance,  corn  for  the  use  of  Italy.  A 
sudden  stoppage  of  the  customary  supply  rendered  im- 
possible the  usual  distributions  in  Rome,  Ravenna,  Milan. 
A  famine  fell  upon  Italy,  bringing  in  its  train  an 
inevitable  diminution  of  the  population.  To  add  to  the 
misfortunes,  Attila,  the  King  of  the  Huns,  or,  as  he  called 
himself,  "  the  Scourge  of  God,"  invaded  the  empire.  The 
battle  of  Chalons,  the  convulsive  death  throe  of  the  Roman 
empire,  arrested  his  career,  A.n.  451. 

Four  years  after  this  event,  through  intrigues  in  the 
Fail  and  pii-  imperial  family,  Genseric,  the  Vandal  king,  was 
lageofUome.  invited  from  Africa  to  Rome,  The  atrocities 
which  of  old  had  been  practised  against  Carthage  under 
the  auspices  of  the  senate  were  now  avenged.  For  fourteen 
days  the  Vandals  sacked  the  city,  perpetrating  unheard-of 
cruelties.  Their  ships,  brought  into  the  Tiber,  enabled 
them  to  accomplish  their  purpose  of  pillage  far  more  effec- 
tually than  would  have  been  possible  by  any  land 
expedition.  The  treasures  of  Rome,  with  multitudes  of 
noble  captives,  were  transported  to  Carthage.  In  twenty- 


CH.  XII.]  THE   AGE  OP   FAITH  IN   THE  WEST.  351 

one  years  after  this  time,  A.D.  476,  the  Western  Empire 
became  extinct. 

Thus  the  treachery  of  the  African  Arians  not  only 
brought  the  Vandals  into  the  most  important  of  all  the 
provinces,  so  far  as  Italv  was  concerned  :  it  also  F~  .  , ,, 

£        .  ,      ,'          .  "VJ.AI  c  ™  Effects  of  the 

iurnished  an  instrument  for  the  ruin  of  Rome,  ware  of  jus- 
But  hardly  had  the  Emperor  Justinian  recon-  tmian- 
quered  Africa  when  he  attempted  the  subjugation  of  the 
Goths  now  holding  possession  of  Italy.  His  general, 
Belisarius,  captured  Rome,  Dec.  10,  A.D.  556.  In  the 
military  operations  ensuing  with  Vitiges,  Italy  was  de- 
vastated, the  population  sank  beneath  the  sword,  pestilence, 
famine.  In  all  directions  the  glorious  remains  of  antiquity 
were  destroyed ;  statues,  as  those  of  the  Mole  of  Hadrian, 
were  thrown  upon  the  besiegers  of  Rome.  These  operations 
closed  by  the  surrender  of  Vitiges  to  Belisarius  at  the 
capture  of  Ravenna. 

But,  as  soon  as  the  military  compression  was  withdrawn, 
revolt  broke  out.  Rome  was  retaken  by  the  Goths ;  its 
walls  were  razed ;  for  forty  days  it  was  deserted  by  its 
inhabitants,  an  emigration  that  in  the  end  proved  its  ruin. 
Belisarius,  who  had  been  sent  back  by  the  emperor,  re- 
entered  it,  but  was  too  weak  to  retain  it.  During  four 
years  Italy  was  ravaged  by  the  Franks  and  the  Goths.  At 
last  Justinian  sent  the  eunuch  Narses  with  a  well- 
appointed  army.  The  Ostrogothic  monarchy  was  over- 
thrown, and  the  emperor  governod  Italy  by  his  exarchs  at 
Ravenna. 

But  what  was  the  cost  of  all  this  ?  We  may  reject  the 
statement  previously  made,  that  Italy  lost  fifteen  millions 
of  inhabitants,  on  the  ground  that  such  computations  were 
beyond  the  ability  of  the  survivors,  but,  from  the  asserted 
number  we  may  infer  that  there  had  been  a  horrible 
catastrophe.  In  other  directions  the  relics  of  civilization 
were  fast  disappearing ;  the  valley  of  the  Danube  had 
relapsed  into  a  barbarous  state ;  the  African  shore  had 
become  a  wilderness ;  Italy  a  hideous  desert ;  „ 

-,   ,  i  f  ,  i  Debased  ideas 

and  the  necessary  consequence  oi  the  extermina-  ofthein- 
tion  of  the  native  Italians  by  war,  and  their  p^™{,nsABeof 
replacement  by  barbarous  adventurers,  was  the 
falling  of  the  sparse  population  of  that  peninsula  into  a 


352  TUB  AGE   OF   FAITH   IN    THE    WEST.  [CH.  XII. 

lower  psychical  state.  It  was  ready  for  the  materialized 
religion  that  soon  ensued.  An  indelible  aspect  was 
stamped  on  the  incoming  Age  of  Faith.  The  East  and  the 
West  had  equally  displayed  the  imbecility  of  ecclesiastical 
rule.  Of  both,  the  Holy  City  had  fallen;  Jerusalem  had 
been  captured  by  the  Persian  and  the  Arab,  Rome  had 
been  sacked  by  the  Vandal  anvl  the  Goth. 

But,  for  the  proper  description  of  the  course  of  affairs,  I 
must  retrace  my  steps  a  little.  In  the  important  political 
events  coinciding  with  the  death  of  Leo  the  Great,  and  the 
constitution  of  the  kingdom  of  Italy  by  the  barbarian 
Odoacer,  A.D.  476-490,  the  bishops  of  Eome  seem  to  have 

taken  but  little  interest.  Doubtless,  on  one  side, 
gress^/ihe  they  perceived  the  transitory  nature  of  such 
'Ireufac to  Stt"  i110^611*8,  and,  on  the  other,  clearly  saw  for 

themselves  the  road  to  lasting  spiritual  domina- 
tion. The  Christians  everywhere  had  long  expressed  a 
total  carelessness  for  the  fate  of  old  Rome ;  and  in  tho 
midst  of  her  ruins  the  popes  were  incessantly  occupied  in 
laying  deep  the  foundations  of  their  power.  Though  it 
mattered  little  to  them  who  was  the  temporal  ruler  of 
Italy,  they  were  vigilant  and  energetic  in  their  relations 
with  their  great  competitors,  the  bishops  of  Constantinople 
and  Alexandria.  It  had  become  clear  that  Christendom 
must  have  a  head;  and  that  headship,  once  definitely 
settled,  implied  the  eventual  control  over  the  temporal 
power.  Of  all  objects  of  human  ambition,  that  headship 
was  best  worth  struggling  for. 

Steadily  pursuing  every  advantage  as  it  arose,  Rome 
inexorably  insisted  that  her  decisions  should  bo  carried 
out  in  Constantinople  itself.  This  was  the  case  especially 
in  the  affair  of  Acacius,  the  bishop  of  that  city,  who,  having 
been  admonished  for  his  acts  by  Felix,  tho  bishop  of  Rome, 
was  finally  excommunicated.  A  difficulty  arose  as  to  tho 
manner  in  which  the  process  should  be  served ;  but  an 
adventurous  monk  fastened  it  to  the  robe  of  Acacius  as  he 
entered  the  church.  Acacius,  undismayed,  proceeded  with 
his  services,  and,  pausing  deliberately,  ordered  the  name 
of  Felix,  the  Bishop  of  Rome,  to  be  struck  from  the  roll  of 
bishops  in  communion  with  the  East.  C  Constantinople  and 
Rome  thus  mutually  excommunicated  one  another.  It  is 


CH.  XII.J  THE  AGE   OF  FAITH  IN  THE   WEST.  353 

in  reference  to  this  affair  that  Pope  Gelasius,  addressing 
the  emperor,  says  :  "  There  are  two  powers  which  rule  the 
•world,  the  imperial  and  pontifical.     You  are  ]t8attitude 
the  sovereign  of  the  human  race,  but  you  bow  toward  the 
your  neck  to  those  who  preside  over  things  emperor- 
divine.     The  priesthood  is  the  greater  of  the  two  powers  ; 
it  has  to  render  an  account  in  the  last  day  for  the  acts  oi' 
kings."     This  is  not  the  language  of  a  feeble  ecclesiastic, 
but  of  a  pontiff  who  understands  his  power. 

The  conquest  of  Italy  by  Theodoric,  the  Ostrogoth,  A.D. 
493,  gave  to  the  bishops  of  Koine  an  Arian  sove-  The  Gothic 
reign,  and  presented  to  the  world  the  anomaly  conquest 

c       T_        A-  •    j."         r*    j>  L\.     Rivcsthepope 

ot  a  heretic  appointing  God  s  vicar  upon  earth.  an  Arian 
There  was  a  contested  election  between  two  master- 
rival  candidates,  whose  factions,  emulating  the  example  of 
the  East,  filled  the  city  with  murder.     The  Gothic  monarch 
ordered  that  he  who  had  most  suffrages,  and  had  been 
first  consecrated,  should  be  acknowleged.     In  this  manner 
Syrnmachus  became  pope. 

Hormisdas,   who   succeeded   Syrnmachus,   renewed   the 
attempt  to  compel  the  Eastern  emperor,  Anastasius,  to 
accept  the  degradation  of  Acacius  and  his  party,  and  to 
enforce  the  assent  of  all  his  clergy  thereto,  but  in  vain. 
On  the  accession  of  Justin  to  the  imperial  throne,  Rome  at 
last  carried  her  point ;  all  her  conditions  were  admitted ; 
the  schism  was  ended  in  the  humiliation  of  the  Bishop  of 
Constantinople,  it  was  said,  through  the  orthodoxy  of  the 
emperor.      But  very  soon  began  to  appear  unmistakable 
indications   that   for    this   religious   victory   a   temporal 
equivalent  had  been  given.     Conspiracies  were 
detected  in  Rome  against  Theodoric,  the  Gothic  an<?popTcon- 
king ;  and  rumours  were  whispered  about  that  ?Pire  against 
the  arms  of  Constantinople  would  before  long 
release  Italy  from  the  heretical  yoke  of  the  Arian.     There 
can   be  no  doubt  that  Theodoric  detected   the  TheGothic 
treason.     It  was  an  evil  reward  for  his  impar-  king  detects 
tial  equity.    At  once  he  disarmed  the  population  chem' 
of  Rome.    From  being  a  merciful  sovereign,  he  exhibited  an 
awful  vengeance.      It  was    in    these  transactions    that 
Boethius,  the  philosopher,  and  Syrnmachus,  the  senator, 
fell  victims  to   his  wrath.     The  pope  John  himself  was 


354  THE   AGE  OF   FAITH   IN  THE   WKST.  [CH.  XIL 

thrown  into  prison,  and  there  miserably  died.  In  his 
remonstrances  with  Justin,  the  great  barbarian  monarch 
displays  sentiments  far  above  his  times,  yet  they  were  the 
sentiments  that  had  hitherto  regulated  his  actions.  "  To 
pretend  to  a  dominion  over  the  conscience  is  to  usurp  tho 
prerogative  of  God.  By  the  nature  of  things,  the  power  of 
sovereigns  is  confined  to  political  government.  They  have 
no  right  of  punishment  but  over  those  who  disturb  the 
public  peace.  The  most  dangerous  heresy  is  that  of  a 
sovereign  who  separates  himself  from  part  of  his  subjects 
because  they  believe  not  according  to  his  belief." 

Theodoric  had  been  but  a  few  years  dead — his  soul  was 
seen  by  an  orthodox  hermit  carried  by  devils  into  the 
crater  of  the  volcano  of  Lipari,  which  was  considered  to  be 
The  con-  ^°  °Pening  into  hell — when  the  invasion  of 
gpiracyma-  Italy  by  Justinian  showed  how  well-founded  his 
suspicions  had  been.  Koine  was,  however,  very 
far  from  receiving  the  advantages  she  had  expected  ;  the 
inconceivable  wickedness  of  Constantinople  was  brought 
into  Italy.  Pope  Sylverius,  who  was  the  son  of  Pope 
Honnisdas,  was  deposed  by  Theodora,  the  emperor's  wife. 
This  woman,  once  a  common  prostittite,  sold  the  papacy  to 
Vigilius  for  two  hundred  pounds  of  gold.  Her  accomplice, 
subjucation  of  Antonina,  the  unprincipled  wife  of  Belisarius,  had 
the  pops  by  Sylverius  stripped  of  his  robes  and  habited  as  a 
the  emperor,  j^oj^  jfe  \vas  subsequently  banished  to  the 
old  convict  island  of  Pandataria,  and  there  died.  Vigilius 
embraced  Eutychianism  and,  it  was  said,  murdered  one 
of  his  secretaries,  and  caused  his  sister's  son  to  be  beaten 
to  death.  He  was  made  to  feel  what  it  is  for  a  bishop  to 
be  in  the  hands  of  an  emperor ;  to  taste  of  the  cup  so  often 
presented  to  prelates  at  Constantinople ;  to  understand  in 
what  estimation  his  sovereign  held  the  vicar  of  God  upon 
earth.  Compelled  to  go  to  that  metropolis  to  embrace  the 
theological  views  which  Justinian  had  put  forth,  thrice  he 
agreed  to  them,  and  thrice  he  recanted  ;  he  excommunicated 
the  Patriarch  of  Constantinople,  and  was  excommunicated 
by  him.  In  his  personal  contests  with  the  imperial  officials, 
they  dragged  him  by  his  feet  from  a  sanctuary  with  so  much 
violence  that  a  part  of  the  structure  was  pulled  down  upon 
him;  they  confined  him  in  a  dungeon  and  fed  him  on 


CH.  XII.J  THE   AGE  OF   FAITH   IN   THE  WEST.  355 

bread  and  water.  Eventually  he  died  an  outcast  in  Sicily. 
The  immediate  effect  of  the  conquest  of  Italy  was  the 
reduction  of  the  popes  to  the  degraded  condition  of  the 
patriarchs  of  Constantinople.  Such  were  the  bitter  fruits 
of  their  treason  to  the  Gothic  king.  The  success  of 
Justinian's  invasion  was  due  to  the  clergy ;  in  the  ruin 
they  brought  upon  their  country,  and  the  relentless 
tyranny  they  drew  upon  themselves,  they  had  their 
reward. 

In  the  midst  of  this  desolation  and  degradation  the  Age 
of  Faith  was  gradually  assuming  distinctive  lineaments  in 
Italy.  Faganization,  which  had  been  patronized  as  a 
matter  of  policy  in  the  East,  became  a  matter  of 

•  ,       f     .,  r  IT,-      ,         m  TI       /-i  The  pagam- 

necessity  in  the  West.     To  a  man  like  Gregory  zationof 
the  Great,  born  in  a  position  which  enabled  him  r^°J8 
to  examine  things  from  a  very  general  point  of 
view,  it  was  clear  that  the  psychical  condition  of  the  lower 
social  stratum  demanded  concessions  in  accordance  with  its 
ideas.     The  belief  of  the  thoughtful  must  be  alloyed  with 
the  superstition  of  the  populace. 

Accordingly,  that  was  what  actually  occurred.  For  the 
clear  understanding  of  these  events  I  shall  have  to  speak, 
1st,  of  the  acts  of  Pope  Gregory  the  Great,  by 

i  ,,        .,  „    ,,  L  '      J  •      j          j    Division  of 

whom  the  ideas  01  the  age  were  organized  and  the  subjects 
clothed  in  a  dress  suited  to  the  requirements  of  |£  ^ trealed 
the  times ;  2d,  of  the  relations  which  the  papacy 
soon  assumed  with  the  kings  of  France,  by  which  the  work 
of  Gregory  was   consolidated,   upheld,   and    diffused  all 
over  Europe.     It  adds  not  a  little  to  the  interest  of  these 
things  that  the  influences  thus  created  have  outlasted 
their  original  causes,  and,  after  the  lapse  of  more  than  a 
thousand  years,  though  moss-covered  and  rotten,  are  a 
stumbling-block  to  the  progress  of  nations. 

Gregory  the  Great  was  the  grandson  of  Pope  Felix. 
His  patrician  parentage  and  conspicuous  abilities  Grrpory  the 
had  attracted  in  early  life  the  attention  of  the  Grcat- 
Emperor  Justin,  by  whom  he  was  appointed  prefect  of 
Eome.     Withdrawn  by  the  Church  from  the  splendours  of 
secular  life,  he  was  sent,  while  yet  a  deacon,  as  nuncio  to 
Constantinople.     Discharging  the  duties  that  had   been 
committed  to  him  with  singular  ability  and  firmness,  he 


356  THE   AGE   OF   FAITH   IN   THE   WEST.  [CH.  XII. 

resumed  the  monastic  life  on  his  return,  with  daily  in- 
creasing reputation.  Elected  to  the  papacy  by  the  clergy, 
the  senate,  and  people  of  Rome,  A.D.  590,  with  well  dissem- 
bled resistance  he  implored  the  emperor  to  reject  their 
choice,  and,  on  being  refused,  escaped  from  the  city  hidden 
in  a  basket.  It  is  related  that  the  retreat  in  which  he  was 
concealed  was  discovered  by  a  celestial  hovering  light  that 
settled  upon  it,  and  revealed  to  the  faithful  their  reluctant 
pope.  This  was  during  a  time  of  pestilence  and  famine. 

Once  made  supremo  pontiff,  this  austere  monk  in  an 
instant  resumed  the  character  he  had  displayed  at  Con- 
stantinople, and  exhibited  the  qualities  of  a  great  states- 
man. IJe  regulated  the  Eoman  liturgy,  the  calendar  of 
festivals,  the  order  of  processions,  the  fashions  of  sacerdotal 
garments  ;  he  himself  officiated  in  the  canon  of  the  mass, 
devised  many  solemn  and  pompous  rites,  and  invented  the 
chant  known  by  his  name.  He  established  schools  of  music, 
administered  the  Church  revenues  with  precision  and 
justice,  and  set  an  example  of  almsgiving  and  charity ; 
for  such  was  the  misery  of  the  times  that  even  Koman 
matrons  had  to  accept  the  benevolence  of  the  Church.  He 
authorized  the  alienation  of  Church  property  for  the 
redemption  of  slaves,  laymen  as  well  as  ecclesiastics. 

An  insubordinate  clergy  and  a  dissolute  populace  quickly 
felt  the  hand  that  now  held  the  reins.  He  sedulously 
watched  the  inferior  pastors,  dealing  out  justice  to  them, 
and  punishing  all  who  offended  with  rigorous  severity. 
He  compelled  the  Italian  bishops  to  acknowledge  him  as 
their  metropolitan.  He  extended  his  influence  to  Greece; 
prohibited  simony  in  Gaul ;  received  into  the  bosom  of  the 
Church  Spain,  now  renouncing  her  Arianism ;  sent  out 
missionaries  to  Britain,  and  converted  the  pagans  of  that 
country ;  extirpated  heathenism  from  Sardinia ;  resisted 
John,  the  Patriarch  of  Constantinople,  who  had  dared  to 
take  the  title  of  universal  bishop ;  exposed  to  the  emperor 
the  ruin  occasioned  by  the  pride,  ambition,  and  wickedness 
of  the  clergy,  and  withstood  him  on  the  question  of  the 
law  prohibiting  soldiers  from  becoming  monks.  It  was  not 
in  the  nature  of  such  a  man  to  decline  the  regulation  of 
political  affairs ;  he  nominated  tribunes,  and  directed  the 
operations  of  troops. 


CU.  XII.]  THE  AGE  OF   FAITH   IN   THE  WEST.  357 

No  one  can  shake  off  the  system  that  has  given  him 
power ;  no  one  can  free  himself  from  the  tincture  of  the 
times  of  which  he  is  the  representative.  Though  His  supersti- 
in  so  many  respects  Gregory  was  far  in  advance  tion- 
of  his  age,  he  was  at  once  insincere  and  profoundly  super- 
stitious. With  more  than  Byzantine  hatred  he  detested 
human  knowledge.  His  oft-expressed  belief  that  the  end 
of  the  world  was  at  hand  was  perpetually  contradicted  by 
his  acts,  which  were  ceaselessly  directed  to  the  foundation 
of  a  future  papal  empire.  Under  him  was  sanctified  that 
my  thologic  Christianity  destined  to  become  the  He  material- 
religion  of  Europe  for  many  subsequent  centuries,  izes  religion- 
and  which  adopted  the  adoration  of  the  Virgin  by  images 
and  pictures ;  the  efficacy  of  the  remains  of  martyrs  and 
relics ;  stupendous  miracles  wrought  at  the  shrines  of 
saints ;  the  perpetual  interventions  of  angels  and  devils  in 
sublunary  affairs;  the  truth  of  legends  far  surpassing  in 
romantic  improbability  the  stories  of  Greek  mythology; 
the  localization  of  heaven  a  few  miles  above  the  air,  and  of 
hell  in  the  bowels  of  the  earth,  with  its  portal  in  the  crater 
of  Lipari.  Gregory  himself  was  a  sincere  believex  in 
miracles,  ghosts,  and  the  resurrection  of  many  persons 
from  the  grave,  but  who,  alas !  had  brought  no  tidings  of 
the  secret  wonders  of  that  land  of  deepest  shade.  He  made 
these  wild  fancies  the  actual,  the  daily,  the  practical 
religion  of  Europe.  Participating  in  the  ecclesiastical 
hatred  of  human  learning,  and  insisting  on  the  maxim 
that  "  Ignorance  is  the  mother  of  devotion,"  he  ms  i.atred  of 
expelled  from  Eome  all  mathematical  studies,  learni»& 
and  burned  the  Palatine  library  founded  by  Augustus 
Caesar.  It  was  valuable  for  the  many  rare  manuscripts  it 
contained.  He  forbade  the  study  of  the  classics,  mutilated 
statues,  and  destroyed  temples.  He  hated  the 

'  .J  .  f  i       •.-,       •        and  expulsion 

very  relics  of  classical  genius;  pursued  with  vin-  of  classical 
dictive  fanaticism  the  writings  of  Livy,  against  authors- 
whom  he  was  specially  excited.     It  has  truly  been  said 
that   "he   was   as   inveterate  an   enemy   to   learning    as 
ever  lived ;"  that  "  no  lucid  ray  ever  beamed  on  his  super- 
stitious  soul."      He   boasted   that   his   own   works   were 
written  without   regard   to   the   rules   of  grammar,  and 
censured  the  crime  of  a  priest  who  had  taught  that  subject. 


358  THE  AGE  OF  FAITH   IN   THE  WEST.  [CIJ.  XII. 

It  was  his  aim  to  substitute  for  the  heathen  writings  others 
which  he  thought  less  dangerous  to  orthodoxy ;  and  so 
well  did  he  succeed  in  rooting  out  of  Italy  her  illustrious 
pagan  authors,  that  when  one  of  his  successors,  Paul  I.,  sent 
to  Pepin  of  France  "  what  books  he  could  find,"  they  were 
"  an  antiphonal,  a  grammar,  and  the  works  of  Dionysius 
the  Areopagite."  He  was  the  very  incarnation  of  the 
Byzantine  principle  of  ignorance. 

If  thus  the  misfortunes  that  had  fallen  on  Italy  had 
given  her  a  base  population,  whose  wants  could  only  be 
met  by  a  paganized  religion,  the  more  fortunate 
arationftrthe  classes  all  over  the  empire  had  long  been  tend- 
debasemeut  of  ing  in  the  same  direction.  Whoever  will  examine 
the  progress  of  Christian  society  from  the  earlier 
ages,  will  find  that  there  could  be  no  other  result  than  a 
repudiation  of  solid  learning  and  an  alliance  with  art.  We 
have  only  to  compare  the  poverty  and  plainness  of  the  first 
disciples  with  the  extravagance  reached  in  a  few  genera- 
tions. Cyprian  complains  of  the  covttousness,  pride, 
luxury,  and  worldly-mi  ndedness  of  Christians,  even  of  the 
Corruption  of  clergy  and  confessors.  Some  made  no  scruple 
Christianity,  fa  contract  matrimony  with  heathens.  Clement 
of  Alexandria  bitterly  inveighs  against  "the  vices  of 
an  opulent  and  luxurious  Christian  community — splendid 
dresses,  gold  and  silver  vessels,  rich  banquets,  gilded 
litters  and  chariots,  and  private  baths.  The  ladies  kept 
Indian  birds,  Median  peacocks,  monkeys,  and  Maltese 
dogs,  instead  of  maintaining  widows  and  orphans ;  the  men 
had  multitudes  of  slaves."  The  dipping  three  times  at 
baptism,  the  tasting  of  honey  and  milk,  the  oblations  for 
the  dead,  the  signing  of  the  cross  on  the  forehead  on 
putting  on  the  clothes  or  the  shoes,  or  lighting  a  candle, 
which  Tertullian  imputes  to  tradition  without  the  authority 
of  Scripture,  foreshadowed  a  thousand  pagan  observances 
soon  to  be  introduced.  As  time  passed  on,  so  far  from  the 
state  of  things  improving,  it  became  worse.  Not  only 
among  the  frivolous  class,  but  even  among  historic  person- 
ages, there  was  a  hankering  after  the  ceremonies  of  the 
departed  creed,  a  lingering  attachment  to  the  old  rites, 
and,  perhaps,  a  religious  indifference  to  the  new.  To  tho 
age  of  Justinian  these  remarks  strikingly  apply.  Bocthiua 


CH.  XII. ]  THE   AGE  OF  FAITH   IN   THE   WEST.  359 

was,  at  the  best,  Only  a  pagan  philosopher;  Tribonian, 
the  great  lawyer,  the  author  of  the  Justinian  Code,  was 
suspected  of  being  an  atheist. 

In  the  East,  the  splendour  of  the  episcopal  establishments 
extorted  admiration  even  from  those  who  were  familiar 
with  the  imperial  court.  The  well-ordered  trains  of 
attendants  and  the  magnificent  banquets  in  the  bishops' 
palaces  are  particularly  praised.  Extravagant  views  of 
the  pre-eminent  value  of  celibacy  had  long  been  held 
among  the  more  devout,  who  conceded  a  reluctant  admis- 
sion even  for  marriage  itself.  "  I  praise  the  married  state, 
but  chiefly  for  this,  that  it  provides  virgins,"  had  been 
the  more  than  doubtful  encomium  of  St.  Jerome.  Among 
the  clergy,  who  under  the  force  of  this  growing  E  igc  . 
sentiment  found  it  advisable  to  refrain  from  splendour  ana 
marriage,  it  had  become  customary,  as  we  learn  wlcKedness- 
from  the  enactments  and  denunciations  against  the  practice, 
to  live  with  "  sub-introduced  women,"  as  they  were  called. 
These  passed  as  sisters  of  the  priests,  the  correctness  of 
whose  taste  was  often  exemplified  by  the  remarkable 
beauty  of  their  sinful  partners.  A  law  of  paganisms  ..f 
Honorius  put  an  end  to  this  iniquity.  The  Christianity. 
children  arising  from  these  associations  do  not  appear  to 
have  occasioned  any  extraordinary  scandal.  At  weddings 
it  was  still  the  custom  to  sing  hymns  to  Venus.  The 
cultivation  of  music  at  a  very  early  period  attracted  the 
attention  of  many  of  the  great  ecclesiastics  —Paul  of 
Samosata,  Arius,  Chrysostom.  In  the  first  congregations 
probably  all  the  worshippers  joined  in  the  hymns  and 
psalmody.  By  degrees,  however,  more  skilful  n  allies  itself 
performevs  had  been  introduced,  and  the  chorus  toart' 
of  the  Greek  tragedy  made  available  under  the  form  of 
antiphonal  singing.  The  Ambrosian  chant  was  eventually 
exchanged  for  the  noble  Eoman  chant  of  Gregory  the 
Great,  which  has  been  truly  characterised  as  the  founda- 
tion of  all  that  is  grand  and  elevated  in  modern  music. 

With  the  devastation  that  Italy  had  suffered  the  Latin 
language  was  becoming  extinct.  But  Roman  literature 
had  never  been  converted  to  Christianity.  Of  the  bent 
writers  among  the  Fathers,  not  one  was  a  Eoman;  all 
were  provincials.  The  literary  basis  was  the  Hebrew 


360  THE    AGE  OF   FAITH    IN    THE   WEST1.  [CH.  XII, 

Scriptures  and  the  New  Testament,  the  poetical  imagery 
being,  for  the  most  part,  borrowed  from  the  prophets.  In 
historical  compositions  there  was  a  want  of  fair  dealing 
and  truthfulness  almost  incredible  to  us;  thus  Eusebius 
naively  avows  that  in  his  history  he  shall  omit  whatever 
and  rejects  might  tend  to  the  discredit  of  the  Church,  and 
learning.  magnify  whatever  might  conduce  to  her  glory. 
The  same  principle  was  carried  out  in  numberless  legends, 
many  of  them  deliberate  forgeries,  the  amazing  credulity 
of  the  times  yielding  to  them  full  credit,  no  matter  how 
much  they  might  outrage  common  sense.  But  what  else 
was  to  be  expected  of  generations  who  could  believe  that 
the  tracks  of  Pharaoh's  chariot-wheels  were  still  impressed 
on  the  sands  of  the  Red  Sea,  and  could  not  be  obliterated 
cither  by  the  winds  or  the  waves?  He  who  ventured  to 
offend  the  public  taste  for  these  idle  fables  brought  down 
upon  himself  the  wrath  of  society,  and  was  branded  as  an 
infidel.  In  the  interpretation  of  the  Scriptures,  and, 
indeed,  in  all  commentaries  on  authors  of  repute,  there  was 
a  constant  indulgence  in  fanciful  mystification  and  the 
detection  of  concealed  meanings,  in  the  extracting  of  which 
an  amusing  degree  of  ingenuity  and  industry  was  often 
shown ;  but  these  hermeneutical  writings,  as  well  as  the 
polemical,  are  tedious  beyond  endurance ;  with  regard  to 
the  latter,  the  energy  of  their  vindictive  violence  is  not 
sufficient  to  redeem  them  from  contempt. 

The  relation  of  the  Church  to  the  sister  arts,  painting 
Painting  and  and  sculpture,  was  doubtless  fairly  indicated  at 
(cuipture.  a  subsequent  time  by  the  second  Council  of 
JS'icea,  A.n.  787;  their  superstitious  use  had  been  resumed. 
Sculpture  has,  huwever,  never  forgotten  the  preference 
that  was  shown  to  her  sister.  To  this  clay  she  is  a  pagan, 
emulating  in  this  the  example  of  the  noblest  of  the  sciences, 
Astronomy,  who  bears  in  mind  the  great  insults  she  has 
received  from  the  Church,  and  tolerates  the  name  of  no 
saint  in  the  visible  heavens ;  the  new  worlds  she  discovers 
are  dedicated  to  Uranus,  or  Neptune,  or  other  Olympian 
divinities.  Among  the  ecclesiastics  there  had  always  been 
many,  occasionally  some  of  eminence,  who  set  their  faces 
against  the  connexion  of  worship  with  art ;  thus  Tertullian 
of  old  hud  manifested  his  displeasure  against  llermogeues, 


CH.  XII.]  THE  AGE   OF   FAITH   IK   THE    WEST.  361 

on  account  of  the  two  deadly  sins  into  which  he  had  fallen, 
painting  and  marriage ;  but  Gnostic  Christianity  had 
approved,  as  Roman  Christianity  was  now  to  approve,  of 
their  union.  To  the  Gnostics  we  owe  the  earliest  examples 
of  our  sacred  images.  The  countenance  of  our  Saviour, 
along  with  those  of  Pythagoras,  Plato,  Aristotle,  appears 
on  some  of  their  engraved  gems  and  seals.  Among  the 
earlier  fathers — Justin  Martyn  and  Tertullian — there  was 
an  impression  that  the  personal  appearance  of  our  Lord 
was  ungainly ;  that  he  was  short  of  stature ;  and,  at  a 
later  period  Cyril  says,  mean  of  aspect  "  even  beyond  tho 
ordinary  race  of  men."  But  these  unsuitable  delineations 
were  generally  corrected  in  the  fourth  century,  Adopts  a  (ypi. 
it  being  then  recognised  that  God  could  not  dwell  cai  model  of 
in  a  humble  form  or  low  stature.  The  model  the  our> 
eventually  received  was  perhaps  that  described  in  the 
spurious  epistle  of  Lentulus  to  the  Eoman  senate :  "  He 
was  a  man  of  tall  and  well-proportioned  form  ;  his  coun- 
tenance severe  and  impressive,  so  as  to  move  the  beholders 
at  once  with  love  and  awe.  His  hair  was  of  an  amber 
colour,  reaching  to  his  ears  with  no  radiation,  and  stand- 
ing up  from  his  ears  clustering  and  bright,  and  flowing 
down  over  his  shoulders,  parted  on  the  top  according  to 
the  fashion  of  the  Kazarenes.  The  brow  high  and  open ; 
the  complexion  clear,  with  a  delicate  tinge  of  red ;  the 
aspect  frank  and  pleasing;  the  nose  and  mouth  finely 
formed ;  the  beard  thick,  parted,  and  of  the  colour  of  tho 
hair ;  the  eyes  blue,  and  exceedingly  bright."  Subse- 
quently the  oval  countenance  assumed  an  air  of  melancholy, 
which,  though  eminently  suggestive,  can  hardly  be  con- 
sidered as  the  typo  of  manly  beauty. 

At  first  the  cross  was  without  any  adornment ;  it  next 
had  a  lamb  at  the  foot ;  and  eventually  became  the  crucifix, 
sanctified  with  the  form  of  the  dying  Saviour.  Of  the  Virgin 
Mary,  destined  in  later  times  to  furnish  so  many  and  of  the 
beautiful  types  of  female  loveliness,  the  earliest  Virgln- 
representations  are  veiled.     The  Egyptian  sculptors  had 
thus  depicted  Isis ;  the  first  form  of  the  Virgin  and  child 
was  the  counterpart  of  Isis  and  Horus.    St.  Augustine  says 
her  countenance  was  unknown ;  there  appears,  however, 
to  have  been  a  very  early  Christian  tradition  that  in  com- 

VOL.  I.— 17 


362  THK   AGE  OF  FAITH   IN  THE  WEST.  [CH.  XIL 

plezion  she  was  a  brunette.  Adventurous  artists  by 
degrees  removed  the  veil,  and  next  to  the  mere  coun- 
tenance added  a  full-grown  figure  like  that  of  a  dignified 
Roman  matron ;  then  grouped  her  with  the  divine  child, 
the  wise  men,  and  other  suggestions  of  Scripture. 

While  thus  the  papacy  was  preparing  for  an  alliance 
with  art,  it  did  not  forget  to  avail  itself  of  the  vast 
advantages  within  its  reach  by  interfering  in  domestic 
life — an  interference  which  the  social  demoralization  of 
the  time  more  than  ever  permitted.  A  prodigious  step  in 
power  was  made  by  assuming  the  cognizance  of  marriage, 
and  the  determination  of  the  numberless  questions  con- 
nected with  it.  Once  having  discovered  the 
of  pap*?*11' n  influence  thus  gained,  the  papacy  never  sur- 
powerinthe  rendered  it;  some  of  the  most  important  events 
in  later  history  have  been  determined  by  its 
action  in  this  matter.  Perhaps  even  a  greater  power 
accrued  from  its  assumption  of  the  cognizance  of  wills, 
and  of  questions  respecting  the  testamentary'  disposal  of 
property.  Though  in  many  respects,  at  the  time  we  are 
now  considering,  the  papacy  had  separated  itself  from 
morality,  had  become  united  to  monachism,  and  was  pre- 
paring for  a  future  alliance  with  political  influences  and 
military  power ;  though  its  indignation  and  censures  were 
less  against  personal  wickedness  than  heresy  of  opinion, 
toward  which  it  was  inexorable  and  remorseless,  a  good 
effect  arose  from  these  assumptions  upon  domestic  life, 
particularly  as  regards  the  elevation  of  the  female  sex. 
The  power  thus  arising  was  re-enforced  by  a  continually- 
increasing  rigour  in  the  application  of  penitential  punish- 
ments. As  in  the  course  of  years  the  intellectual 
church  an-  basis  on  which  that  power  rested  became  more 
*  wzed™01"  doubtful,  and  therefore  more  open  to  attack,  the 
papacy  became  more  sensitive  and  more  exacting. 
Pushed  on  by  the  influence  of  the  lower  population,  it  fell 
into  the  depths  of  anthropomorphism,  asserting  for  the 
and  neccs-  Virgin  and  the  saints  such  attributes  as  omni- 
wmiy  becom-  science,  omnipresence,  omnipotence.  Every- 
ant-  where  present,  they  could  always  listen  to 
prayer,  and,  if  necessary,  control  or  arrest  the  course  of 
Nature.  As  it  was  certain  that  such  doctrines  must  in 


CH.  XII.]  THE  AGE  OP   FAITH   IN   THE   WEST.  363 

the  end  be  overthrown,  the  inevitable  day  was  put  off 
by  an  instant  and  vindictive  repression  of  any  want 
of  conformity.  Despotism  in  the  State  and  despotism  in 
the  Church  were  upheld  by  despotism  over  thought. 

From  the  acts  of  1'ope  Gregory  the  Great,  and  his 
organization  of  the  ideas  of  his  age,  the  paganizatioii  of 
religion  in  Italy  and  its  alliance  with  art,  I 

J   ,  ,     ,  ,  .    ,      Oiiitm  of  the 

have  now  to  turn  to  the  second  topic  to  which  amanccof  the 
this  chapter  is  devoted — the  relations  assumed  r^cyand 

i  -ill-  c-n  i        trance. 

by  the  papacy  with  the  kings  ot  r  ranee,   by 

which  the  work  of  Gregory  was  consolidated  and  upheld, 

and  diffused  all  over  Europe. 

The  armies  of  the  Saracens  had  wrested  from  Christen- 
dom the  western,  southern,  and  eastern  countries 
of  the  Mediterranean  ;  their  fleets  dominated  in  results  of  the 
that  sea.     Ecclesiastical   policy  had  undergone  £™gian 
a  revolution.     Carthage,  Alexandria,  Jerusalem, 
Antioch,  had  disappeared  from  the  Christian  system ;  their 
bishops  had  passed  away.     Alone,  of  the  great  episcopal 
seats,  Constantinople  and  Eome  were  left.     To  all  human 
appearance,  their  fall  seemed  to  be  only  a  question  of  time. 

The  disputes  of  the  Bishop  of  Rome  with  his  African 
and  Asiatic  rivals  had  thus  come  to  an  untimely  end. 
With  them  nothing  more  remained  to  be  done ;  independence 
his  communications  with  the  emperor  at  Con-  olthepope. 
stantinople  were  at  the  sufferance  of  the  Mohammedan 
navies.  The  imperial  power  was  paralysed.  The  pope 
was  forced  by  events  into  isolation ;  he  converted  it  into 
independence. 

But  independence!  how  was  that  to  be  asserted  and 
maintained.  In  Italy  itself  the  Lombards  seemed  to  be 
firmly  seated,  but  they  were  Arian  heretics.  Their 
presence  and  power  were  incompatible  with  his.  Already, 
in  a  political  sense,  he  was  at  their  mercy. 

One  movement  alone  was  open  to  him  ;  and,  whether  he 
rightly  understood  his  position  or  not,  the  stress  of  events 
forced  him  to  make  it.  It  was  an  alliance  with  the  Franks, 
who  had  successfully  resisted  the  Mohammedan  power,  and 
who  were  orthodox. 

An  ambitious  Frank  officer  had  resolved  to  deprive  his 
sovereign  of  the  crown  if  the  pope  would  sanctify  the  deed, 


364  THE  AGE  OF   FAITH   IN   THE   WEST.  [CH.  XII. 

They  came  to  an  understanding.  The  usurpation  was 
consummated  by  the  one  and  consecrated  by  the  other.  It 
was  then  the  interest  of  the  intrusive  line  of 
h?snan?ance°f  monarchs  to  magnify  their  Italian  confederate, 
wiih  the  jn  the  spread  of  Eoman  principles  lay  the  con- 
solidation of  the  new  Frankish  power.  It  became 
desirable  to  compel  the  ignorant  German  tribes  to  acknow- 
ledge in  the  pope  the  vicegerent  of  God,  even  though  the 
sword  must  be  applied  to  them  for  that  purpose  for  thirty 
years. 

The  pope  revolted  against  his  Byzantine  sovereign  on 
the  question  of  images ;  but  that  was  a  fictitious  issue. 
He  did  not  revolt  against  his  new  ally,  who  fell  into  the 
same  heresy.  He  broke  away  from  a  weak  and  cruel 
master,  and  attached  himself  on  terms  of  equality  to  a 
confederate.  But  from  the  first  his  eventual  ascendancy 
was  assured.  The  representative  of  a  system  which  is 
immortal  must  finally  gain  supremacy  over  individuals 
and  families,  who  must  die. 

Though  we  cannot  undervalue  the  labours  of  the  monks, 
who  had  already  nominally  brought  many  portions  of 
Th-  conver-  Europe  to  Christianity,  the  passage  of  the  centre 
won  of  KU-  of  the  Continent  to  its  Age  of  Faith,  was,  in  an 
enlarged  political  sense,  the  true  issue  of  the 
empire  of  the  Franks.  The  fiat  of  Charlemagne  put  a 
stamp  upon  it  which  it  bears  to  this  day.  He  converted  an 
ecclesiastical  fiction  into  a  political  fact. 

To  understand  this  important  event,  it  is  necessary  to 
Three  points  describe,  1st,  the  psychical  state  of  Central 
for  considcra-  Europe ;  2nd,  the  position  of  the  pontiff  and  his 
compact  with  the  Franks.  It  is  also  necessary 
to  determine  the  actual  religious  value  of  the  system  he 
represents,  and  this  is  best  done  through,  3rd,  the  biography 
of  the  popes. 

1st.  As  with  the  Arabs,  so  with  the  barbarians  of 
The  psychical  Europe.  They  pass  from  their  Age  of  Credulity 
chunge  of  EU-  to  their  Age  of  Faith  without  dwelling  long  in 
the  intermediate  state  of  Inquiry.  An  age  of 
inqiiiry  implies  self-investigation,  and  the  absence  of  an 
authoritative  teacher.  But  the  Arabs  had  had  the  Nes- 
torians  and  the  Jews,  and  to  the  Germans  the  lessons  of 


CU.  XII.]  THE   AGE   OF   FAITH   IN   THE  WEST.  365 

the  monk  were  impressively  enforced  by  the  convincing 
argument  of  the  sword  of  Charlemagne. 

The  military  invasions  of  the  south  by  the  barbarians 
were  retaliated  by  missionary  invasions  of  the  north.  The 
aim  of  the  former  was  to  conquer,  that  of  their  Labours  an^ 
antagonists  to  convert,  if  antagonists  those  can  successes  of 
be  called  who  sought  to  turn  them  from  their  * 
evil  ways.  The  monk  penetrated  through  their  most 
gloomy  forests  unarmed  and  defenceless ;  he  found  his  wa  y 
alone  to  their  fortresses.  Nothing  touches  the  heart  of  a 
savage  so  profoundly  as  the  greatness  of  silent  courage. 
Among  the  captives  taken  from  the  south  in  war  wcru 
often  high-born  women  of  great  beauty  and  lnfllienceof 
purity  of  mind,  and  sometimes  even  bishops,  devout  wo- 
who,  true  to  their  religious  principles,  did  not  men' 
fail  to  exert  a  happy  and  a  holy  influence  on  the  tribes 
among  whom  their  lot  was  cast.  One  after  another  the 
various  nations  submitted  :  the  Vandals  and  Gepidae  in  the 
fourth  century;  the  Goths  somewhat  earlier;  the  Franks 
at  the  end  of  the  fifth ;  the  Alemanni  and  Lombards  at 
the  beginning  of  the  sixth  ;  the  Bavarians,  Hes-  conversion  of 
sians,  and  Thuringians  in  the  seventh  and  Eur°pe- 
eighth.  Of  these,  all  embraced  the  Arian  form  except  the 
Franks,  who  were  converted  by  the  Catholic  clergy.  In 
truth,  however,  these  nations  were  only  Christianized 
upon  the  surface,  their  conversion  being  indicated  by  littlo 
more  than  their  making  the  sign  of  the  cross.  In  all 
these  movements  women  exercised  an  extraordinary 
influence:  thus  Clotilda,  the  Queen  of  the  Franks,  brought 
over  to  the  faith  her  husband  Clovis.  Bertha,  the  Queen 
of  Kent,  and  Gisella,  the  Queen  of  Hungary,  led  the  way 
in  their  respective  countries ;  and  under  similar  influences 
were  converted  the  Duke  of  Poland  and  the  Czar  Jarislaus. 
To  women  Europe  is  thus  greatly  indebted,  though  the 
forms  of  religion  at  the  first  were  nothing  more  than 
the  creed  and  the  Lord's  prayer.  It  has  been  truly 
said  that  for  these  conversions  three  conditions  were 
necessary — a  devout  female  of  the  court,  a  national  cala- 
mity, and  a  monk.  As  to  the  people,  they  seem  to  have 
followed  the  example  of  their  rulers  in  blind  subserviency, 
altogether  careless  as  to  what  the  required  faith  might  lie. 


366  THE  AGE   OF   FAITH   IN   THE   WEST.  [CH.  XII. 

The  conversion  of  the  ruler  is  naively  taken  by  historians 
as  the  conversion  of  the  whole  people.  As  might  be 
expected,  a  faith  so  lightly  assumed  at  the  will  or  whim  of 
the  sovereign  was  often  as  lightly  cast  aside;  thus  the 
Swedes,  Bohemians,  and  Hungarians  relapsed  into  idolatry. 

Among  such  apostasies  it  is  interesting  to  recall  that  of 
Conversion  of  the  inhabitants  of  Britain,  to  whom  Christianity 
Kngiand.  wag  grg^  introduced  by  the  Roman  legions,  and 
who  might  boast  in  Constantino  the  Great,  and  his  mother 
Helena,  if  they  were  really  natives  of  that  country,  that 
they  had  exercised  no  little  influence  on  the  religion  of  the 
world.  The  biography  of  Pelagius  shows  with  what 
acuteness  theological  doctrines  were  considered  in  those 
remote  regions ;  but,  after  the  decline  of  Roman  affairs, 
this  promising  state  of  things  was  destroyed,  and  the 
clergy  driven  by  the  pagan  invaders  to  the  inacessible 
parts  of  Wales,  Scotland,  and  Ireland.  The  sight  of  some 
English  children  exposed  for  sale  in  the  slave-market  at 
Rome  suggested  to  Gregory  the  Great  the  attempt  of  re- 
converting the  island.  On  his  assuming  the  pontificate 
he  commissioned  the  monk  Augustine  for  that  purpose ;  and 
after  the  usual  exertion  of  female  influence  in  the  court  of 
King  Ethelbert  by  Bertha,  his  Prankish  princess,  and  the 
usual  vicissitudes  of  backsliding,  the  faith  gradually  won 
its  way  throughout  the  whole  country.  A  little  opposition 
occurred  on  the  part  of  the  ancient  clergy,  who  retained  in 
their  fastnesses  the  traditions  of  the  old  times,  particularly 
in  regard  to  Easter.  But  this  at  length  disappeared  :  an 
intercourse  sprang  up  with  Rome,  and  it  became  common 
for  the  clergy  and  wealthy  nobles  to  visit  that  city. 

Displaying  the  same  noble  quality  which  in  our  own 
times  characterises  it,  British  Christianity  did  not  fail  to 
Irish  ar,d  exert  a  proselytizing  spirit.  As,  at  the  end  of 
British  mis-  the  sixth  century,  Columban,  an  Irish  monk  of 
Banchor,  had  gone  forth  as  a  missionary,  passing 
through  France,  Switzerland,  and  beyond  the  confines  of 
the  ancient  Roman  empire,  so  about  a  century  later 
Boniface,  an  Englishman  of  Devonshire,  repaired  to 
Germany,  under  a  recommendation  from  the  pope  and 
Charles  Martel,  and  laboured  among  the  Hessians  and 
,  cutting  down  their  sacred  oaks,  overturning  theii 


CH.  XII.]  THK   AGE  OF   FAITH   IN   THE  WEST.  367 

altars,  erecting  churches,  founding  bishoprics,  and  gaining 
at  last,  from  the  hands  of  the  savages,  the  crown  of 
martyrdom.  In  the  affinity  of  their  language  to  those  of 
the  countries  to  which  they  went,  these  missionaries  from 
the  West  found  a  very  great  advantage. 

It  is  the  glory  of  Pope  Formosus,  the  same  whose  body 
undenvent  a  posthumous  trial,  that  he  converted  the 
Bulgarians,  a  people  who  came  from  the  banks  of  the 
Volga.  The  fact  that  this  event  was  brought  about  by  a 
picture  representing  the  judgment-day  shows  on  what 
trifling  circumstances  these  successes  turned.  The  Slavians 
were  converted  by  Greek  missionaries,  and  for  them  the 
monk  Cyril  invented  an  alphabet,  as  Ulphilas  had  done  for 
the  Goths.  The  predatory  Normans,  who  plundered  the 
churches  in  their  forays,  embraced  Christianity  on  settling 
in  Normandy,  as  the  Goths,  in  like  circumstances,  had 
elsewhere  done.  The  Scandinavians  were  converted  by  St. 
Anschar. 

Thus,  partly  by  the  preaching  of  missionaries,  partly  by 
the  example  of  monks,  partly  by  the  influence  of  females, 
partly  by  the  sword  of  the  Frankish  sovereigns,  partly  by 
the  great  name  of  Eome,  Europe  was  at  last  nominally 
converted.  The  so-called  religious  wars  of  Charlemagne, 
which  lasted  more  than  thirty  years,  and  which 
were  attended  by  the  atrocities  always  incident  Charlemagne 
to  such  undertakings,  were  doubtless  as  much,  so  °™  ^f6 
far  as  he  was  concerned,  of  a  political  as  of  a 
theological  nature.  They  were  the  embodiment  of  the 
understanding  that  had  been  made  with  Koine  by  Pepin. 
Charlemagne  clearly  comprehended  the  position  and  func- 
tions of  the  Church ;  he  never  suffered  it  to  intrude  unduly 
on  the  state.  Regarding  it  as  furnishing  a  bond  for 
uniting  not  only  the  various  nations  and  tribes  of  his 
empire,  but  even  families  and  individuals  together,  he  ever 
extended  to  it  a  wise  and  liberal  protection.  His  mental 
condition  prevented  him  from  applying  its  doctrines  to  the 
regulation  of  his  own  life,  which  was  often  blemished  by 
acts  of  violence  and  immorality.  From  the  point  of  view 
he  occupied,  he  doubtless  was  led  to  the  conclusion  that 
the  maxims  of  religion  are  intended  for  the  edification  and 
comfort  of  those  who  occupy  a  humbler  sphere,  but  that 


3(58  THE  AGE  OF  FAITH   IX   THE  WEST.  [CH.  XII. 

for  a  prince  it  is  only  necessary  to  maintain  appropriate 
political  relations  with  the  Church.  To  him  baptism  was 
the  sign,  not  of  salvation,  but  of  the  subjugation  of  people ; 
and  the  foundation  of  churches  and  monasteries,  the  in- 
stitution af  bishoprics,  and  increase  of  the  clergy,  a  more 
trustworthy  means  of  government  than  military  establish- 
ments. A  priest  must  necessarily  lean  on  him  for  support, 
a  lieutenant  might  revolt. 

If  thus  Europe,  by  its  conversion,  received  from  Rome 
an  immense  benefit,  it  repaid  the  obligation  at  length  by 
infusing  into  Latin  Christianity  what  was  sadly  needed — 
a  higher  moral  tone.  Earnestness  is  the  attribute  of 
luflcx  action  savag°  life-  That  divorce  between  morality  and 
of  converted  faith  which  the  southern  nations  had  experienced 
Europe.  wag  nQj.  pOSgjD}e  among  these  converts.  If,  by 
communicating  many  of  their  barbarous  and  pagan  con- 
ceptions to  the  Latin  faith,  they  gave  it  a  tendency  to 
develop  itself  in  an  idolatrous  form,  their  influence  was  not 
one  of  unmitigated  evil,  for  while  they  lowered  the 
standard  of  public  belief,  they  elevated  that  of  private  life. 
In  truth,  the  contamination  they  imparted  is  often  over- 
rated. The  infusion  of  paganism  into  religion  was  far 
more  due  to  the  people  of  the  classical  countries.  The 
inhabitants  of  Italy  and  Greece  were  never  really  alienated 
from  the  idolatries  of  the  old  times.  At  the  best,  they 
were  only  Christianized  on  the  surface.  With  many  other 
mythological  practices,  they  forced  image-worship  on  the 
clergy.  But  Charlemagne,  who,  in  this  respect,  may  be 
looked  upon  as  a  true  representative  of  Frankish  and 
German  sentiment,  totally  disapproved  of  that  idolatry. 
The  con-  2nd.  From  this  consideration  of  the  psj^chical 

SZr°v'»nrtthe  revolution  that  had  occurred  in  Central  Europe, 

jtiipacj  uiiu  ^  •  •  rt       t  ••  i 

the  Franks.  I  turn  to  an  investigation  of  the  position  oi  the 
papacy  and  its  compact  with  the  Franks. 

Scarcely  had  the  Arabs  consolidated  their  conquest  of 
Africa  when  they  passed  into  Spain,  and  quickly,  as  will 
rosit'onofthe  be  related  in  u  subsequent  chapter,  subjugating 
Franks  and  that  country,  prepared  to  overwhelm  Europe. 
It  was  their  ambition  and  their  threat  to  preach 
the  unity  of  God  in  Home.  They  reached  the  centre  of 
France,  but  were  beaten  in  the  great  battle  of  Tours  by 


OH.  XII.]  THE   AGE   OF   FAITH    IN    THE    WEST.  369 

Charles  Martel,  the  Duke  of  the  Franks,  A.U.  732.  That 
battle  fixed  the  religious  destiny  of  Europe.  The  Saracens 
did  not,  however,  give  up  their  attempt.  Three  years 
afterward  they  returned  into  Provence,  and  Charles  was 
himself  repulsed.  But  by  this  time  their  power  had 
expanded  too  extensively  for  consolidation.  It  was  already 
giving  unmistakable  tokens  of  decomposition.  Scarcely, 
indeed,  had  Musa,  the  conqueror  of  Spain,  succeeded  in  his 
expedition,  when  he  was  arrested  at  the  head  of  his  army, 
and  ordered  to  give  an  account  of  his  doings  at  Damascus. 
It  was  the  occurrence  of  such  disputes  among  the  Saracens 
in  Spain  that  constituted  the  true  check  to  their  conquest 
of  France.  Charles  Martel  had  permitted  Chilperic  II. 
and  Thierry  IV.  to  retain  the  title  of  king;  but  his  fore- 
sight of  approaching  events  seems  to  be  indicated  by  the 
circumstance  that  after  the  death  of  the  latter  he  abstained 
from  appointing  any  successor.  lie  died  A.D.  741,  Rations  of 
leaving  a  memory  detested  by  the  Church  of  his  entries  Martel 

J  X ,    •,  .       i         •  i  to  the  Church. 

own  country  on  account  of  his  having  been 
obliged  to  appropriate  from  its  property  sufficient  for  the 
payment  of  his  army.  He  had  taken  a  tithe  from  the 
revenues  of  the  churches  and  convents  for  that  purpose. 
The  ignorant  clergy,  alive  only  to  their  present  temporal 
interests,  and  not  appreciating  the  great  salvation  he  had 
wrought  out  for  them,  could  never  forgive  him.  Their 
inconceivable  greed  could  not  bear  to  be  taxed  even  in  its 
own  defence.  "  It  is  because  Prince  Charles,"  says  the 
Council  of  Kiersi  to  one  of  his  descendants,  "  was  the  first 
of  all  the  kings  and  princes  of  the  Franks  who  separated 
and  dismembered  the  goods  of  the  Church ;  it  is  for  that 
sole  cause  that  he  is  eternally  damned.  We  know,  indeed, 
that  St.  Eucherms,  Bishop  of  Orleans,  being  in  prayer, 
was  carried  up  into  the  world  of  spirits,  and  that  among 
the  things  which  the  Lord  showed  to  him,  he  beheld 
Charles  tormented  in  the  lowest  depths  of  hell.  The  angel 
who  conducted  him,  being  interrogated  on  this  matter, 
answered  him  that,  in  the  judgment  to  come,  the  soul  and 
body  of  him  who  has  taken,  or  who  has  divided  the  goods 
of  the  Church,  shall  be  delivered  over,  even  before  the  end 
of  the  world,  to  eternal  torments  by  the  sentence  of  the 
saints,  who  shall  sit  together  with  the  Lord  to  judge  him. 

17* 


370  THE   AGE  OF   FAITH   IN    THE   WEST.  [CH.  XII. 

This  act  of  sacrilege  shall  add  to  his  own  sins  the  accumu- 
lated sins  of  all  those  who  thought  that  they  had  purchased 
their  redemption  by  giving  for  the  love  of  God  their  goods 
to  holy  places,  to  the  lights  of  divine  worship,  and  to  the 
alms  of  the  servants  of  Christ."  This  amusing  but  in- 
structive quotation  strikingly  shows  how  quickly  the 
semibarbarian  Prankish  clergy  had  caught  the  methods  of 
Itome  in  the  defence  of  temporal  possessions. 

Pepin,  the  son  of  Charles  M artel,  introduces  us  to  an 
The  epoch  of  epoch  and  a  policy  resembling  in  many  respects 
Pepin.  that  of  Constantino  the  Great;  for  he  saw  that 

by  an  alliance  with  the  Church  it  would  be  possible  for 
him  to  displace  his  sovereign  and  attain  to  kingly  power. 
A  thorough  understanding  was  entered  upon  between 
Pepin  and  the  pope.  Each  had  his  needs.  One  wanted 
the  crown  of  France,  the  other  liberation  from  Constanti- 
nople and  the  Lombards.  Pepin  commenced  by  enriching 
the  clergy  with  immense  gifts,  and  assigning  to  the  bishops 
seats  in  the  assembly  of  the  nation.  In  thus  consolidating 
ecclesiastical  power  he  occasioned  a  great  social  revolution, 
as  was  manifested  by  the  introduction  of  the  Latin  and 
the  disuse  of  the  Frankic  on  those  occasions,  and  by  the 
HI«  con-  transmuting  of  military  reviews  into  theological 
epiracy  with  assemblies.  Meantime  Pope  Zachary,  on  his 
part,  made  ready  to  accomplish  his  engagement, 
the  chaplain  of  Pepin  being  the  intermedium  of  negotiation. 
On  the  demand  being  formally  made,  the  pope  decided 
that  "  he  should  be  king  who  really  possessed  the  royal 
power."  Hereupon,  in  March,  A.n.  752,  Pepin  caused 
himself  to  be  raised,  by  his  soldiers  on  a  buckler  and  pro- 
claimed King  of  the  Franks.  To  give  solemnity  to  the 
event,  he  was  anointed  by  the  bishops  with  oil.  The 
deposed  king,  Childeric  III.,  was  shut  up  in  the  convent  of 
St.  Omer.  Next  year  Pope  Stephen  III.,  driven  to  extremity, 
applied  to  Pepin  for  assistance  against  the  Lombards.  It 
was  during  these  transactions  that  he  fell  upon  the  device 
of  enforcing  his  demand  by  a  letter  which  he  feigned 
had  been  written  by  St.  Peter  to  the  Franks.  And  now, 
visiting  France,  the  pope,  as  an  earnest  of  his  friendship, 
and  as  the  token  of  his  completion  of  the  contract,  in  the 
monastery  of  St.  Denis,  placed,  with  his  own  hands,  the 


CH.  XII.]  THE  AGE  OF  FAITH   IN   THE  WEST.  371 

diadem  on  Pepin's  brow,  and  anointed  him,  his  wife,  and 
children,  with  "  the  holy  oil,"  thereby  reviving  the  Jewish 
system  of  creating  kings  by  anointment,  and  imparting  to 
his  confederate  "  a  divine  right."  Pepin  now 
finally  defeated  the  Lombards,  and  assigned  a 
part  of  the  conquered  territory  to  the  pope.  Thus,  by  a 
successful  soldier,  two  important  events  had  been  accom- 
plished— a  revolution  in  France,  attended  by  a  change  of 
dynasty,  and  a  revolution  in  Christendom— the  Bishop  of 
Borne  had  become  a  temporal  sovereign.  To  the  hilt  of 
the  sword  of  France  the  keys  of  St.  Peter  were  henceforth 
so  firmly  bound  that,  though  there  have  been  great  kings, 
and  conquerors,  and  statesmen  who  have  wielded  that 
sword,  not  one  to  this  day  has  been  able,  though  many 
have  desired,  to  wrench  the  encumbrance  away. 

Charlemagne,  on  succeeding  his  father  Pepin,  thoroughly 
developed  his  policy.  At  the  urgent  entreaty  of  The  reign  of 
Pope  Stephen  III.  he  entered  Italy,  subjugated  Charlemagne, 
the  Lombards,  and  united  the  crown  of  Lombardy  to 
that  of  France.  Upon  the  pagan  Saxons  burning  the 
church  of  Deventer,  he  commenced  a  war  with  them  which 
lasted  thirty-three  years,  and  ended  in  their  compulsory 
Christianization.  As  the  circle  of  his  power  extended,  he 
everywhere  founded  churches  and  established  bishoprics, 
enriching  them  with  territorial  possessions.  To  the  petty 
sovereigns,  as  they  successively  succumbed,  he  permitted 
the  titlo  of  counts.  True  to  his  own  and  his  father's 
undo  standing  with  the  pope,  he  invariably  insisted  on 
baptism  as  the  sign  of  submission,  punishing  with  ap- 
palling barbarity  any  resistance,  as  on  the  occasion  of  the 
revolt,  A.I).  782,  when,  in  cold  blood,  he  beheaded  in  one 
day  4500  persons  at  Verden.  Under  such  circumstances, 
it  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  that  clerical  influence  extended 
so  fast ;  yet,  rapid  as  was  its  development,  the  power  of 
Charlemagne  was  more  so. 

In  the  church  of  St.  Peter  at  Rome,  on  Christmas-day, 
A.D.  800,  Pope  Leo  III.,  after  the  celebration  of  He  is  crowned 
the  holy  mysteries,  suddenly  placed  on  the  head  Kmperor  of 
of  Charlemagne  a  diadem,  amid  the  acclama-  tf      e8t* 
tions  of  the  people,  "  Long  life  and  victory  to  Charles,  the 
most  pious  Augustus,  crowned  by  God,  the  great   and 


372  THE   AGE  OF   FAITH   IN   THE   WEST.  [dl.  Xll. 

pacific  Emperor  of  the  Eomans."  His  head  and  body  were 
anointed  with  the  holy  oil,  and,  as  was  done  in  the  case  of 
the  Caesars,  the  pontiff  himself  saluted  or  adored  him.  In 
the  coronation  oath  Charlemagne  promised  to  maintain  the 
privileges  of  the  Church. 

The  noble   title  of  "Emperor  of  the  West"  was  not 

inappropriate,  for  Charlemagne  ruled  in  France,  Spain, 

Italy,  Germany,  Hungary.     An  inferior  dignity 

and  carries  J,\        j.  v -       V  i    4.      v-      i  n- 

out  his  com-  would  not  have  been  equal  to  his  deserts.  IJis 
pact  with  the  princely  munificence  to  St.  Peter  was  worthy  of 

papacy.  r  '  .  .      ,  .          .  J 

the  great  occasion,  and  even  in  his  minor  acts 
he  exhibited  a  just  appreciation  of  his  obligations  to  the 
apostle.  He  proceeded  to  make  in  his  dominions  such 
changes  in  the  Church  organization  as  the  Italian  policy 
required,  substituting,  for  instance,  the  Gregorian  for  the 
Ambrosian  chant,  and,  wherever  his  priests  resisted,  he  took 
from  them  by  force  their  antiphonaries.  As  an  example 
to  insubordinates  he,  at  the  request  of  the  pope,  burnt 
some  of  the  singers  along  with  their  books. 

The  rapid  growth  of  the  power  of  Charlemagne,  his 
overshadowing  pre-eminence,  and  the  subordinate  position 
of  the  pope,  who  had  really  become  his  Italian  lieutenant, 
are  strikingly  manifested  by  the  event  of  image- worship  in 
He  declines  *ne  "West.  On  this,  as  we  shall  in  another  chapter 
image-wor-  see,  the  popes  had  revolted  from  their  icono- 
8hll>'  clastic  sovereigns  of  Constantinople.  The  second 

Council  of  Nicea  had  authorized  image- worship,  but  the 
good  sense  of  Charlemagne  was  superior  to  such  idolatry. 
He  openly  expressed  his  disapproval,  and  even  dictated  a 
work  against  it — the  Carolinian  books.  The  pope  was 
therefore  placed  in  a  singular  dilemma,  for  not  only  had 
image -worship  been  restored  at  Constantinople,  and  the 
original  cause  of  the  dispute  removed,  but  the  new  pro- 
tector, Charlemagne,  had  himself  embraced  iconoclasm. 
but  permits  However,  it  was  not  without  reason  that  the 
relic-worship.  pOpe  at  this  time  avoided  the  discussion,  for  a 
profitable  sale  of  bones  and  relics,  said  to  be  those  of  saints, 
but  in  reality  obtained  from  the  catacombs  of  Rome,  had 
arisen.  To  the  barbarian  people  of  the  north  these  gloomy 
objects  proved  more  acceptable  than  images  of  wood,  and 
the  traffic,  though  contemptible,  was  more  honourable  than 


CH.  XII.]  THE   AGE  OF   FAITH  IN  THE  WEST.  373 

the  slave-trade  in  vassals  and  peasant  children  which  had 
been  carried  on  with  Jews  and  Mohammedans.  Like  all 
the  great  statesmen  of  antiquity,  who  were  unable  to 
comprehend  the  possibility  of  a  highly  civilized  society 
without  the  existence  of  slavery,  Charlemagne  accepted 
that  unfortunate  condition  as  a  political  necessity,  His  ^^y  M 
and  attempted  to  draw  from  it  as  much  benefit  redeem 
as  it  was  capable  of  yielding  to  the  state.  From  sl 
certain  classes  of  slaves  he  appointed,  by  a  system  of 
apprenticeship,  those  who  should  be  devoted  to  the 
mechanical  arts  and  to  trade.  It  was,  however,  slavery 
and  warfare  which,  during  his  own  life,  by  making  the 
possession  of  property  among  small  proprietors  an  absolute 
disadvantage,  prepared  the  way  for  that  rapid  dissolution 
of  his  empire  so  quickly  occurring  after  his  death. 

Yet,  though  Charlemagne  thus  accepted  the  existence  of 
slavery  as  a  necessary  political  evil,  the  evidences  are  not 
wanting  that  he  was  desirous  to  check  its  abuses  wherever 
he  could.    When  the  Italian  dukes  accused  Pope  The  Euro. 
Adrian  of  selling  his  vassals  as  slaves  to  the  Sara-  pean  biave- 
cens,  Charlemagne  made  inquiry  into  the  matter,  trade' 
and,  finding  that  transactions  of  the  kind  had  occurred  in 
the  port  of  Civita  Vecchia,  though  he  did  not  choose  to 
have  so  infamous  a  scandal  made  public,  he  ever  afterwards 
withdrew  his  countenance  from  that  pope.    At  that  time  a 
very  extensive  child  slave-trade  was  carried  on  with  the 
Saracens  through  the  medium  of  the  Jews,  ecclesiastics  as 
well  as  barons  selling  the  children  of  their  serfs. 

Though  he  never  succeeded  in  learning  how  to  write, 
no  one  appreciated  better  than  Charlemagne  the  value  of 
knowledge.      He  laboured   assiduously  for  the  elevation 
and  enlightenment  of  his  people.     He  collected 
together  learned  men ;  ordered  his  clergy  to  turn  meStTofaw 
their  attention  to  letters;    established  schools  Pth^caleo8t^e 
of  religious  music  ;  built  noble  palaces,  churches, 
bridges;    transferred,  for  the   adornment  of  his  capital, 
Aix-la-Chapelle,  statues  from  Italy ;  organized  the  profes- 
sions and  trades  of  his  cities,  and  gave  to  his  towns  a 
police.     Well  might  he  be  solicitous  that  his  state  of  the 
clergy  should  not  only  become  more  devout,  but  clerey- 
more  learned.     Very  few  of  them   knew  how  to  read, 


374  THE  AGE  OF   FAITH   IN   THE  WEST.  [CH.  XII. 

scarcely  any  to  write.  Of  the  first  half  of  the  eighth  cen- 
tury, a  period  of  great  interest,  since  it  includes  the 
invasion  of  France  by  the  Saracens,  and  their  expulsion, 
there  is  nothing  more  than  the  most  meagre  annals ;  the 
clergy  understood  much  better  the  use  of  the  sword  than 
that  of  the  pen.  The  schools  of  Charlemagne  proved  a 
failure,  not  through  any  fault  of  his,  but  because  the  age 
had  no  demand  for  learning,  and  the  Roman  pontiifs  and 
their  clergy,  as  far  as  they  troubled  themselves  with  any 
opinion  about  the  matter,  thought  that  knowledge  was  of 
more  harm  than  good. 

The  private  life  of  Charlemagne  was  stained  with  great 
ivivate  life  of  immoralities  and  crimes.  He  indulged  in  a 
Charlemagne,  polygamy  scarcely  inferior  to  that  of  the  khalifs, 
solacing  himself  with  not  less  than  nine  wives  and  many 
concubines.  He  sought  to  increase  the  circle  of  the  former, 
or  perhaps  it  should  be  said,  considering  the  greatness  of 
his  statesmanship,  to  unite  the  Eastern  and  Western 
empires  together  by  a  marriage  with  the  Empress  Irene. 
This  was  that  Irene  who  put  out  the  eyes  of  her  own  son  in 
the  porphyry  chamber  at  Constantinople.  His  fame 
extended  into  Asia  The  Khalif  Haroun  al  Raschid,  A.D. 
801,  sent  him  from  Bagdad  the  keys  of  our  Saviour's 
sepulchre  as  a  mark  of  esteem  from  the  Commander  of  the 
His  relations  Faithful  to  the  greatest  of  Christian  kings, 
with  the  However,  there  was  doubtless  as  much  policy  as 
Saracens.  esteem  in  this,  for  the  Asiatic  khalifs  perceived  the 
advantage  of  a  good  understanding  with  Ihe  power  that 
could  control  the  emirs  of  Spain.  Always  bearing  in  mind 
his  engagement  with  the  papacy,  that  Roman  Christianity 
should  be  enforced  upon  Europe  wherever  his  influence 
could  reach,  he  remorselessly  carried  into  execution  the 
penalty  of  death  that  he  had  awarded  to  the  crimes  of,  1,  re- 
fusing baptism ;  2,  false  pretence  of  baptism  ;  3,  relapse  to 
idolatry ;  4,  the  murder  of  a  priest  or  bishop ;  5,  human 
sacrifice ;  6,  eating  meat  in  Lent.  To  the  pagan  German 
his  sword  was  a  grim,  but  a  convincing  missionary.  To 
the  last  he  observed  a  savage  fidelity  to  his  bond.  He 
died  A.U.  814. 

Such  was  the  compact  that  had  been  established  between 
the  Church  and  the  State.  As  might  be  expected,  the 


CH.  XII.]  THE  AGE  OF   FAITH   IN   THE  WEST.  375 

succeeding  transactions  exhibit  an  alternate  preponderance 
of  one  and  of  the  other,  and  the  degradation  of  both  in 
the  end.     Scarcely  was  Charlemagne  dead  ere 
the  imbecile  character  of  his  son  and  successor,  eventsaiter 
Louis  the  Pious,  gave   the   Church  her  oppor-  J>Jf  d,eath  of 

.          T,       ,  °,    .  ,,,.     ,.     ,       ,  Charlemagne. 

tunity.  By  the  expulsion  01  his  lather  s  numerous 
concubines  and  mistresses,  the  scandals  of  the  palace  were 
revealed.  I  have  not  the  opportunity  to  relate  in  detail 
how  this  monarch  disgracefully  humiliated  himself  before 
the  Church ;  how,  under  his  weak  government,  the  slave- 
trade  greatly  increased ;  how  every  shore,  and,  indeed, 
every  country  that  could  be  reached  through  a  navigable 
river,  was  open  to  the  ravages  of  pirates,  the  Northmen 
extending  their  maraudings  even  to  the  capture  of  great 
cities ;  how,  in  strong  contrast  with  the  social  decomposition 
into  which  Europe  was  falling,  Spain,  under  her  Moham- 
medan rulers,  was  becoming  rich,  populous,  and  great; 
how,  on  the  east,  the  Huns  and  Avars,  ceasing  their  ravages, 
accepted  Christianity,  and,  under  their  diversity  of  interests 
the  nations  that  had  been  bound  together  by  Charlemagne 
separated  into  two  divisions — French  and  German — and 
civil  wars  between  them  ensued ;  how,  through  the  folly 
of  the  clergy,  who  vainly  looked  for  protection  from  relics 
instead  of  the  sword,  the  Saracens  ranged  uncontrolled  all 
over  the  south,  and  came  within  an  hair's-breadth  of  cap- 
turing Koine  itself;  how  France,  at  this  time,  had  literally 
become  a  theocracy,  the  clergy  absorbing  everything  that 
was  worth  having ;  how  the  pope,  trembling  at  home, 
nevertheless  maintained  an  external  power  by  interfering 
with  domestic  life,  as  in  the  quarrel  with  King  Lothaire 
II.  and  his  wife ;  how  Italy,  France,  and  Germany  became, 
as  Africa  and  Syria  had  once  been,  full  of  miracles  ;  how, 
through  these  means  the  Church  getting  the  advantage, 
John  VIII.  thought  it  expedient  to  assert  his  right  of  dis- 
posing of  the  imperial  crown  in  the  case  of  Charles  the  Bald 
(the  imperial  supremacy  that  Charlemagne  had  obtained 
in  reality  implied  the  eventual  supremacy  of  the  pope); 
how  an  opportunity  which  occurred  for  reconstructing  the 
empire  of  the  West  under  Charles  the  Fat  was  thwarted 
by  the  imbecility  of  that  sovereign,  an  imbecility  so  great 
that  his  nobles  were  obliged  to  depose  him ;  how,  thereupon, 


370  THE  AGE  OF  FAITH   IN   THE  WEST.  [CH.  XIL 

a  number  of  new  kingdoms  arose,  and  Europe  fell,  by  an 
inevitable  necessity,  into  a  political  chaos ;  how,  since 
there  was  thus  no  protecting  government,  each  groat 
landowner  had  to  protect  himself,  and  the  rightfulness 
of  private  war  became  recognised  ;  how,  through  this  evil 
state,  the  strange  consequence  ensued  of  a  great  increase 
in  the  population,  it  becoming  the  interest  of  every  lord  to 
raise  as  many  peasants  as  he  could,  offering  his  lands  on 
personal  service,  the  value  of  an  estate  being  determined 
by  the  number  of  retainers  it  could  furnish,  and  hence 
arose  the  feudal  system ;  how  the  monarchical  principle, 
once  again  getting  the  superiority,  asserted  its  power 
in  Germany  in  Henry  the  Fowler  and  his  descendants,  the 
three  Othos  ;  how,  by  these  great  monarchs,  the  subjection 
of  Italy  was  accomplished,  and  the  morality  of  the  German 
clergy  vindicated  by  their  attempts  at  the  reformation  oi1 
the  papacy,  which  fell  to  the  last  degree  of  degradation, 
becoming,  in  the  end,  an  appanage  of  the  Counts  of  Tuscu- 
lum,  and,  shameful  to  be  said,  in  some  instances  given  by 
prostitutes  to  their  paramours  or  illegitimates,  in  some,  to 
mere  boys  of  precociously  dissolute  life  ;  before  long,  A.D. 
1 045,  it  was  actually  to  be  sold  for  money.  We  have  now 
approached  the  close  of  a  thousand  years  from  the  birth 
of  Christ ;  the  evil  union  of  the  Church  and  State,  their 
rivalries,  their  intrigues,  their  quarrels,  had  produced  an 
inevitable  result,  doing  the  same  in  the  West  that  they 
had  done  in  the  East ;  disorganizing  the  political  system, 
and  ending  in  a  universal  social  demoralization.  The 
absorption  of  small  properties  into  large  estates  steadily 
increased  the  number  of  slaves ;  where  there  had  once  been 
social  corvii-  many  free  families,  there  was  now  found  only  a 
tion  of  Europe.  rich  man-  Kven  of  this  class  the  number  dimi- 
nished by  the  same  process  of  absorption,  until  there  wero 
sparsely  scattered  here  and  there  abbots  and  counts  with 
enormous  estates  worked  by  herds  of  slaves,  whose  numbers, 
since  sometimes  one  man  possessed  more  than  20,OOJ  of 
them,  might  deceive  us,  if  we  did  not  consider  the  vast 
Gurface  over  which  they  were  spread.  Examined  in  that 
way,  the  West  of  Europe  proves  to  have  been  covered  with 
forests,  here  and  there  dotted  with  a  convent  or  a  town. 
From  those  countries,  once  full  of  the  splendid  evidences 


CH.  XIT.]  THE  AGE  OF  FAITH   IN   THE   WEST.  377 

of  Roman  civilization,  mankind  was  fast  disappearing. 
There  was  no  political  cause,  until  at  a  later  time,  when 
the  feudal  system  was  developed,  for  calling  men  into 
existence.  Whenever  there  was  a  partial  peace,  there  was 
no  occasion  for  the  multiplication  of  men  beyond  the  inten- 
tion of  extracting  from  them  the  largest  possible  revenue, 
a  condition  implying  their  destruction.  Soon  even  the 
necessity  for  legislation  ceased ;  events  were  left  to  take 
their  own  course.  Through  the  influence  of  the  monks  the 
military  spirit  declined  ;  a  vile  fetichism  of  factitious  relics, 
which  were  working  miracles  in  all  directions,  constituted 
the  individual  piety.  Whoever  died  without  bequeathing  . 
a  part  of  his  property  to  the  Church,  died  without  confes-! 
sion  and  the  sacraments,  and  forfeited  Christian  burial., 
Trial  by  battle,  and  the  ordeals  of  fire  and  boiling  water, 
determined  innocence  or  guilt  in  those  accused  of  crimesA 
Between  places  at  no  great  distance  apart  intercommunica- 
tion ceased,  or,  at  most,  was  carried  on  as  in  the  times  of 
the  Trojan  War,  by  the  pedlar  travelling  with  his  packs. 

In  these  deplorable  days  there  was  abundant  reason  to 
adopt  the  popular  expectation  that  the  end  of  Expected  end 
all  things  was  at  hand,  and  that  the  year  1000  of  the  world, 
would  witness   the   destruction   of  the   world.  A'D'  10<i°" 
Society  wyas  dissolving,  the  human  race  was  disappearing, 
and  with  difficulty  the  melancholy  ruins  of  ancient  civili- 
zation could  be  traced.     Such  was  the  issue  of  the  second 
attempt  at  the  union  of  political  and  ecclesiastical 
power.    In  a  former  chapter  we  saw  what  it  had  nnSirf  ""* 
been  in  the  East,  now  we  have  found  what  it  church  ana 
was  in  the  West.      Inaugurated  in  selfishness, 
it    strengthens    itself    by   violence,    is    perpetuated    by 
ignorance,  and  yields  as  its  inevitable  result,  social  ruin. 

And  while  things  were  thus  going  to  wreck  in  the  state, 
it  was  no  better  in  the  Church.  The  ill-omened  union 
between  them  was  bearing  its  only  possible  fruit,  disgrace 
to  both — a  solemn  warning  to  all  future  ages. 

3d.  This  brings  me  to  the  third  and  remaining  topic  1 
proposed  to  consider  in  this  chapter,  to  determine  value  of  the 
the  actual  religious  value  of  the  system  in  pro-  new  system 

„    ,     .         °f          j  -ci  r        estimated 

cess  of  being   forced  upon  Europe,  using,  lor  from  the  lives 
the  purpose,  that  which  must  be  admitted  as  the  of 
best  test — the  private  lives  of  the  popes. 


378  THE  AGE  OF   FAITH   IN   THE   WEST.  [CH.  XII. 

To  some  it  might  seem,  considering   the  interests  of 
religion  alone,  desirable  to  omit  all  biographical  reference 
to   the   popes ;    but   this  cannot   be  done  with 
justice  to  the  subject.     The  essential  principle 

°^  *ne  PaPacv'  *^ia*  ^6  K°man  pontiff  is  the 
vicar  of  Christ  upon  earth,  necessarily  obtrudes 
his  personal  relations  upon  us.  How  shall  we  understand 
his  faith  unless  we  see  it  illustrated  in  his  life?  Indeed, 
the  unhappy  character  of  those  relations  was  the  inciting 
cause  of  the  movements  in  Germany,  France,  and  England, 
ending  in  the  extinction  of  the  papacy  as  an  actual  political 
power,  movements  to  be  understood  only  through  a  suffi- 
cient knowledge  of  the  private  lives  and  opinions  of  the 
popes.  It  is  well,  as  far  as  possible,  to  abstain  from 
burdening  systems  with  the  imperfections  of  individuals. 
In  this  case  they  are  inseparably  interwoven.  The  signal 
peculiarity  of  the  papacy  is  that,  though  its  history  may 
be  imposing,  its  biography  is  infamous.  I  shall,  however, 
forbear  to  t-peak  of  it  in  this  latter  respect  more  than  the 
occasion  seems  necessarily  to  require ;  shall  pass  in  silence 
some  of  those  cases  which  would  profoundly  shock  my 
religious  reader,  and  therefore  restrict  myself  to  the  ages 
between  the  middle  of  the  eighth  and  the  middle  of  tho 
eleventh  centuries,  excusing  mj'self  to  the  impartial  critic 
by  the  apology  that  these  were  the  ages  with  which  I  have 
been  chiefly  concerned  in  this  chapter. 

On  the  death  of  Pope  Paul  I.,  who  had  attained  tho 
pontificate  A.D.  757,  the  Duke  of  Nepi  compelled  some 
The  popes  bishops  to  consecrate  Constantino,  one  of  his 
from  A.D  757.  brothers,  as  pope ;  but  more  legitimate  electors 
subsequently,  A.D.  768,  choosing  Stephen  IV.,  the  usurper 
and  his  adherents  were  severely  punished  ;  the  eyes  of  Con- 
stantino were  put  out ;  the  tongue  of  the  Bishop  Theodorus 
was  amputated,  and  he  was  left  in  a  dungeon  to  expire  in 
the  agonies  of  thirst.  The  nephews  of  Pope  Adrian  seized 
his  successor,  Pope  Leo  III.,  A.I'.  7D5,  in  the  street,  and, 
forcing  him  into  a  neighbouring  church,  attempted  to  put 
out  his  eyes  and  cut  out  his  tongue ;  at  a  later  period,  this 
pontiff  trying  to  suppress  a  conspiracy  to  depose  him, 
Rome  became  the  scene  of  rebellion,  murder,  and  con- 
flagration. His  successor,  Stephen  V.,  A.D.  816,  was 
ismominiously  driven  from  the  city  ;  his  successor,  Paschal 


OH.  XII.]  THE   AGE   OF   FAITH   IN   THE   WEST.  379 

I.,  was  accused  of  blinding  and  murdering  two  ecclesiastics 
in  the  Lateran  Palace;  it  was  necessary  that  imperial 
commissioners  should  investigate  the  matter,  but  the  pope 
died,  after  having  exculpated  himself  by  oath  before  thirty 
bishops.  John  VIII.,  A.D.  872,  unable  to  resist  the 
Mohammedans,  was  compelled  to  pay  them  tribute ;  tho 
Bishop  of  Naples,  maintaining  a  secret  alliance  with  them, 
received  his  share  of  the  plunder  they  collected.  Him 
John  excommunicated,  nor  would  he  give  him  absolution 
unless  he  would  betray  the  chief  Mohammedans  and 
assassinate  others  himself.  There  was  an  ecclesiastical 
conspiracy  to  murder  the  pope ;  some  of  the  treasures  of 
the  Church  were  seized  ;  and  the  gate  of  St.  Pancrazia  was 
opened  with  false  keys,  to  admit  the  Saracens  into  the  city. 
Formosus,  who  had  been  engaged  in  these  transactions, 
and  excommunicated  as  a  conspirator  for  the  murder  of 
John,  was  subseqiiently  elected  pope,  A.D.  891 ;  he  was 
succeeded  by  Boniface  VI.,  A.D.  896,  who  had  been  deposed 
from  the  diaconate,  and  again  from  the  priesthood,  for  his 
immoral  and  lewd  life.  By  Stephen  VII.,  who  followed, 
the  dead  body  of  Formosus  was  taken  from  the  grave, 
clothed  in  the  papal  habiliments,  propped  up  in  a  chair, 
tried  before  a  council,  and  the  preposterous  and  in- 
decent scene  completed  by  cutting  off  three  of  the  fingers 
of  the  corpse  and  casting  it  into  the  Tiber ;  but  Stephen 
himself  was  destined  to  exemplify  how  low  the  papacy  had 
fallen:  he  was  thrown  into  prison  and  strangled.  In 
the  course  of  five  years,  from  A.D.  896  to  A.n.  900,  five 
popes  were  consecrated.  Leo  V.,  who  succeeded  in  A.D.  904, 
was  in  less  than  two  months  thrown  into  prison  by 
Christopher,  one  of  his  chaplains,  who  usurped  his  place, 
and  who,  in  his  turn,  was  shortly  expelled  from  Rome  by 
Sergius  III.,  who,  by  the  aid  of  a  military  force,  seized  the 
pontificate,  A.D.  905.  This  man,  according  to  the  testimony 
of  the  times,  lived  in  criminal  intercourse  with  the  cele- 
brated prostitute  Theodora,  who,  with  her  daughters 
Marozia  and  Theodora,  also  prostitutes,  exercised  an  extra- 
ordinary control  over  him.  The  love  of  Theodora  was 
also  shared  by  John  X. :  she  gave  him  first  the  arch- 
bishopric of  Kavenna,  and  then  translated  him  to  Eome, 
A.D.  915,  as  pope.  John  was  not  unsuited  to  the  times;  he 


380  THE   AGE  OF   FAITH   IN   THE   WEST.  [CH.  XII. 

organized  a  confederacy  which  perhaps  prevented  Rome 
from  being  captured  by  the  Saracens,  and  the  world  was 
astonished  and  edified  by  the  appearance  of  this  warlike 
pontiff  at  the  head  of  his  troops.  By  the  love  of  Theodora, 
as  was  said,  he  had  maintained  himself  in  the  papacy  for 
fourteen  years ;  by  the  intrigues  and  hatred  of  her  daughter 
Marozia  he  was  overthrown.  She  surprised  him  in  the 
Lateran  Palace  ;  killed  his  brother  Peter  before  his  face  ; 
threw  him  into  prison,  where  he  soon  died,  smothered,  as 
was  asserted,  with  a  pillow.  After  a  short  intei-val 
Marozia  made  her  own  son  pope  as  John  XI.,  A.D.  !>31. 
Many  affirmed  that  Pope  Sergius  was  his  father,  but  she 
herself  inclined  to  attribute  him  to  her  husband  Alberic, 
whose  brother  Guido  she  subsequently  married.  Another 
of  her  sous,  Alberic,  so  called  from  his  supposed  father, 
jealous  of  his  brother  John,  cast  him  and  their  mother 
Marozia  into  prison.  After  a  time  Alberic's  son  was  elected 
pope,  A.D.  956;  he  assumed  the  title  of  John  XII.,  the 
amorous  Marozia  thus  having  given  a  son  and  a  grandson 
to  the  papacy.  John  was  only  nineteen  years  old  when  he 
thus  became  the  head  of  Christendom.  His  reign  was 
characterized  by  the  most  shocking  immoralities,  so  that 
the  Emperor  Otho  I.  was  compelled  by  the  German  clergy 
to  interfere.  A  synod  was  summoned  for  his  trial  in  the 
Church  of  St.  Peter,  before  which  it  appeared  that  .John 
had  received  bribes  for  the  consecration  of  bishops,  that  ho 
had  ordained  one  who  was  but  ten  years  old,  and  had 
performed  that  ceremony  over  another  in  a  stable  ;  he  was 
charged  with  incest  with  one  of  his  father's  concubines, 
and  with  so  many  adulteries  that  the  Lateran  Palace  had 
become  a  brothel ;  he  put  out  the  eyes  of  one  ecclesiastic 
and  castrated  another,  both  dying  in  consequence  of  their 
injuries  ;  he  was  given  to  drunkenness,  gambling,  and  the 
invocation  of  .Jupiter  and  Venus.  When  cited  to  appear 
before  the  council,  he  sent  word  that  "  he  had  gone  out 
hunting;"  and  to  the  fathers  who  remonstrated  with  him,  ho 
threateningly  remarked  "  that  Judas,  as  well  as  the  other 
disciples,  received  from  his  master  the  power  of  binding 
and  loosing,  but  that  as  soon  as  he  proved  a  traitor  to  the 
common  cause,  the  only  power  he  retained  was  that  of 
binding  his  own  neck."  Hereupon  he  was  deposed,  and 


CH.  XII.]  THE  AGE  OF  FAITH  IN  THE  WEST.  381 

Leo  VIII.  elected  in  his  stead,  A.D.  963  ;  but  subsequently 
getting  the  upper  hand,  he  seized  his  antagonists,  cut  off 
the  hand  of  one,  the  nose,  finger,  tongue  of  others.  His  life 
was  eventually  brought  to  an  end  by  the  vengeance  of  a 
man  whose  wife  he  had  seduced. 

After  such  details  it  is  almost  needless  to  allude  to  the 
annals  of  succeeding  popes :  to  relate  that  John  XIII. 
was  strangled  in  prison;  that  Boniface  VII.  imprisoned 
Benedict  VII.,  and  killed  him  by  starvation ;  that  John 
XIV.  was  secretly  put  to  death  in  the  dungeons  of  the 
Castle  of  St.  Angelo;  that  the  corpse  of  Boniface  was 
dragged  by  the  populace  through  the  streets.  The 
sentiment  of  reverence  for  the  sovereign  pontiff,  nay, 
even  of  respect,  had  become  extinct  in  Kome  ;  throughout 
Europe  the  clergy  were  so  shocked  at  the  state  of  things, 
that,  in  their  indignation,  they  began  to  look  with  appro- 
bation on  the  intention  of  the  Emperor  Otho  to  take  from 
the  Italians  their  privilege  of  appointing  the  successor  of 
St.  Peter,  and  confine  it  to  his  own  family.  But  his 
kinsman,  Gregory  V.,  whom  he  placed  on  the  pontifical 
throne,  was  very  soon  compelled  by  the  Komans  to  fly; 
his  excommunications  and  religious  thunders  were  turned 
into  derision  by  them ;  they  were  too  well  acquainted 
with  the  true  nature  of  those  terrors ;  they  were  living 
behind  the  scenes.  A  terrible  punishment  awaited  the 
Anti-pope  John  XVI.  Otho  returned  into  Italy,  seized 
him,  put  out  his  eyes,  cut  off  his  nose  and  tongue,  and 
sent  him  through  the  streets  mounted  on  an  ass,  with  his 
face  to  the  tail,  and  a  wine-bladder  on  his  head.  Jt 
seemed  impossible  that  things  could  become  worse;  yet 
Kome  had  still  to  see  Benedict  IX.,  A.D.  1033,  a  boy  of 
less  than  twelve  years,  raised  to  the  apostolic  throne.  Of 
this  pontiff,  one  of  his  successors,  \  ictor  III.,  declared 
that  his  life  was  so  shameful,  so  foul,  so  execrable,  that  he 
shuddered  to  describe  it.  He  ruled  like  a  captain  of 
banditti  rather  than  a  prelate.  The  people  at  The  papacy 
last,  unable  to  bear  his  adulteries,  homicides,  bought  at 
and  abominations  any  longer,  rose  against  him.  io45,°by  ' 
In  despair  of  maintaining  his  position,  he  put  Gregory  vi. 
up  the  papacy  to  auction.  It  was  bought  by  a  presbyter 
named  John,  who  became  Gregory  VL,  A.U.  1045. 


382  THE   AGE   OF   FAITH   IN   THE   WEST.  [CH.  XII 

More  than  a  thousand  years  had  elapsed  since  the  birth  of 
our  Saviour,  and  such  was  the  condition  of  Rome.  Well  may 
Conclusion  *ne  historian  shut  the  annals  of  those  times  in 
rcspectingtnis  disgust ;  well  may  the  heart  of  the  Christian 
Biography.  gjn^  -^j^  jjjm  at  Sucj1  a  catalogue  of  hideous 

crimes.   Well  may  he  ask,  Were  these  the  vicegerents  of  God 

upon  earth — these,  who  had  truly  reached  that  goal  beyond 

which  the  last  effort  of  human  wickedness  cannot  pass  ? 

Not  until  several  centuries  after  these  events  did  public 

opinion  come  to  the  true  and  philosophical  con- 

•ophkal         elusion — the  total  rejection  of  the  divine  claims 

conclusion  at    of  the  papacy.     For  a  time  the  evils  were  attri- 

last  attained.     ,  ,    J     ?      J  f  .-,  ..c      ,      ,      ,. 

buted  to  the  manner  of  the  pontifical  election, 
as  if  that  could  by  any  possibility  influence  the  descent 
of  a  power  which  claimed  to  be  supernatural  and  under 
the  immediate  care  of  God.  The  manner  of  election  was 
this.  The  Roman  ecclesiastics  recommended  a  candidate 
The  evils  to  the  College  of  Cardinals  ;  their  choice  had  to 
imputed  to  ke  ratified  by  the  populace  of  Rome,  and,  after 

the  nature  of      , ,  , ,  .»  .        ,  .  '    ,       ml 

papal  eieo  that,  the  emperor  must  give  his  approval.  1  here 
were  thus  to  be  brought  into  agreement  the 
machinations  of  the  lower  ecclesiastics,  the  intrigues  of 
the  cardinals,  the  clamours  of  the  rabble  of  Rome,  and  the 
policy  ot  the  emperor.  Such  a  system  must  inevitably 
break  to  pieces  with  its  own  incongruities.  Though  we 
may  wonder  that  men  failed  to  see  that  it  was  merely  a 
human  device,  we  cannot  wonder  that  the  emperors 
perceived  the  necessity  of  taking  the  appointments  into 
their  own  hands,  and  that  Gregory  VII.  was  resolved  to 
confine  it  to  the  College  of  Cardinals,  to  the  exclusion  of 
the  emperor,  the  Roman  people,  and  even  of  the  rest  of 
Christendom — an  attempt  in  which  he  succeeded. 

No  one  can  study  the  development  of  the  Italian  ecclesi- 
astical power  without  discovering  how  completely  it 
Human  origin  depended  on  human  agency,  too  often  on  human 
<>f  the  papacy,  passion  and  intrigues ;  how  completely  wanting 
it  was  of  any  mark  of  the  Divine  construction  and  care — 
the  offspring  of  man,  not  of  God,  and  therefore  bearing 
upon  it  the  lineaments  of  human  passions,  human  virtues, 
and  human  sing. 


CHAPTER  XIH. 

DIGRESSION   ON   THE   PASSAGE   OF   THE   ARABIANS 
TO   THEIR   AGE   OF   REASON. 

INFLUENCE  OF  MEDICAL  IDEAS  THROUGH   THE   NESTORIANS   AND  JEWS. 

The  intellectual  Develojrment  of  the  Arabians  is  guided  by  the  Nestoriani 
and  the  Jews,  and  is  in  the  Medical  Direction. — The  Basis  of  thit 
Alliance  is  theological. 

Antagonism  of  the  Byzantine  System  to  Scientific  Medicine. — Suppres- 
sion of  the  Asclepions. — Their  Replacement  by  Miracle-cure. — The 
resulting  Superstition  and  Ignorance. 

Affiliation  of  the  Arabians  with  the  Nestorians  and  Jews. 

1st.  The  Nestorians,  their  Persecutions,  and  the  Diffusion  of  their  Sec- 
tarian Ideas. — They  inherit  the  old  Greek  Medicine. 

Sub-digression  on  Greek  Medicine. — The  Asclepions.  —  Philosophical 
Importance  of  Hippocrates,  who  separates  Medicine  from  Religion. — • 
The  School  of  Cnidos. — Its  Suppression  by  Constantine. 

Suit-digression  on  Egyptian  Medicine. — It  is  founded  on  Anatomy  and 
Physiology. — Dissections  and  Vivisections. — The  Great  Alexandrian 
Physicians. 

2nd.  The  Jewish  Physicians. — Their  Emancipation  from  Superstition. — 
They  found  Colleges  and  promote  Science  and  Letters. 

The  contemporary  Tendency  to  Magic,  Necromancy,  the  Black  Art. — Th« 
Philosopher's  Stone,  Elixir  of  Life,  etc. 

The  Arabs  originate,  scientific  Chemistry. — Discover  the  strong  Acids, 
Phosphorus,  etc. — Their  geological  Ideas. — Apply  Chemistry  to  the 
Practice  of  Medicine. — Approach  of  the  Conflict  between  the  Saracenic 
material  and  the  European  supernatural  System. 

THE  military  operations  of  the   Arabians,   described  in 
Chapter  XI.,  overthrew  the  Byzantine  political 

ii         i  A.        A  f  IT'    'xi.    Importance  of 

system,  prematurely  closing  the  Age  ol  Jbaith  the  influence 
in  the  East;  their  intellectual  procedure  gave 
rise  to  an  equally  important  result,  being  des- 
tined, in  the  end,  to  close  the  Ago  of  Faith  in  the  West. 


884  DIGRESSION    ON   THE   PASSAGE  OF  [Off.   XI 11. 

The  Saracens  not  only  destroyed  the  Italian  offshoot,  ;hey 
also  impressed  characteristic  lineaments  on  the  Age  of 
Reason  in  Europe. 

Events  so  important  make  it  necessary  for  me  to  turn 
aside  from  the  special  description  of  European  intellectual 
advancement,  and  offer  a  digression  on  the  passage  of  the 
Arabians  to  their  Age  of  Keason.  It  is  impossible  for  us 
to  understand  their  action  in  the  great  drama  about  to  be 
performed  unless  we  understand  the  character  they  had 
assumed. 

In  a  few  centuries  the  fanatics  of  Mohammed  had 
Their  inteiieo  altogether  changed  their  appearance.  Great 
tuai  progress,  philosophers,  physicians,  mathematicians,  astro- 
nomers, alchemists,  grammarians,  had  arisen  among  them. 
Letters  and  science,  in  all  their  various  departments,  were 
cultivated. 

A  nation  stirred  to  its  profoundest  depths  by  warlike 
emigration,  and  therefore  ready  to  make,  as  soon  as  it 

reaches  a  period  of  repose,  a  rapid  intellectual 
w<TeVheCherS  advance,  may  owe  the  path  in  which  it  is  about 
Nestorians  to  pass  to  those  who  are  in  the  position  of 

pointing  it  out,  or  of  officiating  as  teachers. 
The  teachers  of  the  Saracens  were  the  Nestorians  and 
the  Jews. 

It  has  been  remarked  that  Arabian  science  emerged  out 
of  medicine,  and  that  in  its  cultivation  physicians  took 
the  lead,  its  beginnings  being  in  the  pursuit  of  alchemy. 

In  this  chapter  I  have  to  describe  the  origin  of 
tittc'progress  these  facts,  and  therefore  must  consider  the 
wastbrough  gtate  of  Greek  and  Egyptian  medicine,  and 

relate  how,  wherever  the  Byzantine  system  could 
reach,  true  medical  philosophy  was  displaced  by  relic 
and  shrine-curing  ;  and  how  it  was,  that  while  European 
ideas  were  in  all  directions  reposing  on  the  unsubstantial 
basis  of  the  supernatural,  those  of  the  Saracens  were 
resting  on  the  solid  foundation  of  a  material  support. 

When  the  Arabs  conquered  Egypt,  their  conduct  was 
that  of  bigoted  fanatics  ;  it  justified  the  accusation  made 
by  some  against  them,  that  they  burned  the  Alexandrian 
library  for  the  purpose  of  heating  the  baths.  But  scarcely 
were  they  settled  in  their  new  dominion  when  they 


CH.  XIII.]     THE   ARABIANS  TO   THEIR   AGE   OF   REASON.  385 

exhibited  an  extraordinary  change.     At  once  they  became 
lovers  and  zealous  cultivators  of  learning. 

The  Arab  power  had  extended  in  two  directions,  and 
had   been  submitted  to  two   influences.     In  Asia  it  had 
been  exposed  to  the  Nestorians,   in  Africa  to  the   Jews, 
both  of  whom  had  suffered  persecution  at  the  causssof 
hands  of  the  Byzantine  government,  apparently  £™«nion. 
for  the   same   opinion  as  that  which  had  now  tormnsand 
established  itself  by  the  sword  of  Mohammed.  Jews- 
The  doctrine  of  the  unity  of  God  was  their  common  point 
of  contact.     On  this  they  could  readily  affiliate,  and  hold 
in  common  detestation  the  trinitarian  power  at  Constan- 
tinople.    He  who  is  suffering  the  penalties  of  the  law  as  a 
heretic,   or  who  is  pursued  by    judicial  persecution   as 
a  misbeliever,  will  readily  consort  with  others  reputed  to 
cherish  similar  infidelities.     Brought  into  unison  in  Asia 
with  the  Nestorians,  and  in  Africa  with  the  Alexandrian 
Jews,    the    Arabians    became    enthusiastic    admirers    of 
learning. 

Not  that  there  was  between  the  three  parties  thus 
coalescing  a  complete  harmony  of  sentiment  in  the  theolo- 
gical direction ;  for,  though  the  Nestorians  and  the  Jews 
were  willing  to  accept  one-half  of  the  Arabian 
dogma,  that  there  is  but  one  God,  they  could  becomestheir 
not  altogether  commit  themselves  to  the  other,  n^JJ^1 
that  Mohammed  is  his  Prophet.  Perhaps 
estrangement  on  this  point  might  have  arisen,  but 
fortunately  a  remarkable  circumstance  opened  the  way  for 
a  complete  understanding  between  them.  Almost  from 
the  beginning  the  Nestorians  had  devoted  themselves  to 
the  study  of  medicine,  and  had  paid  much  attention  to  the 
structure  and  diseases  of  the  body  of  man ;  the  Jews  had 
long  produced  distinguished  physicians.  These  medical 
studies  presented,  therefore,  a  neutral  ground  on  which 
the  three  parties  could  intellectually  unite  in  harmony ; 
and  so  thoroughly  did  the  Arabians  affiliate  with  these 
their  teachers,  that  they  acquired  from  them  a  character- 
istic mental  physiognomy.  Their  physicians  were  their 
great  philosophers  ;  their  medical  colleges  were  their  foci 
of  learning.  While  the  Byzantines  obliterated  science  in 
theology,  the  Saracens  illuminated  it  by  medicine. 

VOL.  I.— 18 


386  DIGRESSION  ON  THE  PASSAGE  OP  [CH.  XIII, 

When  Constantino  the  Great  and  his  successors,  under 
ecclesiastical  influence,  had  declared  themselves  the  enemies 
Rjzantine  °^  worldly  learning,  it  became  necessary  for  tho 
suppression  of  clergy  to  assume  tho  duty  of  seeing  to  tho 

physical  as  well  as  the  religious  condition  of 
the  people.  It  was  unsuited  to  the  state  of  things  that 
physicians,  whoso  philosophical  tendencies  inclined  them 
to  the  pagan  party,  should  be  any  longer  endured.  Tliuir 
education  in  the  Asclepions  imparted  to  them  ideas  in 
opposition  to  the  new  policy.  An  edict  of  Constantino 
suppressed  those  establishments,  ample  provision  being, 
however,  made  for  replacing  them  by  others  more  agree- 
able to  the  genius  of  Christianity.  Hospitals  and 
benevolent  organizations  were  founded  in  the  chief  cities, 
Substitution  ant^  richly  endowed  with  money  and  lands, 
of  public  In  these  merciful  undertakings  the  empress- 

mother,  Helena,  was  distinguished,  her  example 
being  followed  by  many  high-born  ladies.  The  heart  of 
women,  which  is  naturally  open  to  the  desolate  and  afflicted, 
soon  gives  active  expression  to  its  sympathies  when  it  is 
sanctified  by  Christian  faith.  In  this,  its  legitimate 
direction,  Christianity  could  display  its  matchless  bene- 
volence and  charities.  Organizations  were  introduced 
upon  the  most  extensive  and  varied  scale ;  one  had  charge 
of  foundlings,  another  of  orphans,  another  of  the  poor.  We 
have  already  alluded  to  the  parabolani  or  visitors,  and  of 
the  manner  in  which  they  were  diverted  from  their 
original  intent. 

But,  noble  as  were  these  charities,  they  laboured  under 
an  essential  defect  in  having  substituted  for  educated 
physicians  well-meaning  but  unskilful  ecclesiastics.  Tho 
destruction  of  the  Asclepions  was  not  attended  by  any 
suitably  extensive  measures  for  insuring  professional  educa- 
GradnM  faii  tion.  The  sick  who  were  placed  in  the  bene- 
into  miracle-  volent  institutions  were,  at  the  best,  rather 

under  the  care  of  kind  nurses  than  under  the 
advice  of  physicians  ;  and  the  consequences  are  seen  in  the 
gradually  increasing  credulity  and  imposture  of  succeeding 
ages,  until,  at  length,  there  was  an  almost  universal 
reliance  on  miraculous  interventions.  Fetiches,  said  to  bo 
the  relics  of  saints,  but  no  better  than  those  of  tropical 


CH.  XI11.J     THE    ARABIANS  TO  THEIK   AGE   OF   REASON.  387 

Africa,  were  believed  to  cure  every  disorder.  To  the 
shrines  of  saints  crowds  repaired  as  they  had  at  one  time 
to  the  temples  of  ^Esculapius.  The  worshippers  remained, 
though  the  name  of  the  divinity  was  changed. 

Scarcely   were    the   Asclepions   closed,   the  schools  of 
philosophy    prohibited,  the    libraries   dispersed 

j  j      i  •  -L.         jj  •  Closing  of  the 

or  destroyed,  learning  branded  as  magic  or  schools  of 
punished  as  treason,  philosophers  driven  into  medicine  and 
exile  and  as  a  class  exterminated,  when  it  became 
apparent  that  a  void  had  been  created  which  it  was  in- 
cumbent on  the  victors  to  fill.  Among  the  great  prelates, 
who  was  there  to  stand  in  the  place  of  those  men  whose 
achievements  had  glorified  the  human  race  ?  Who  was  to 
succeed  to  Archimedes,  Hipparchus,  Euclid,  Herophilus, 
Eratosthenes  ?  who  to  Plato  and  Aristotle  ?  The  quackeries 
of  miracle-cure,  shrine-cure,  relic-cure,  were  destined  to 
eclipse  the  genius  of  Hippocrates,  and  nearly  two  thousand 
years  to  intervene  between  Archimedes  and  Newton,  nearly 
seventeen  hundred  between  Hipparchus  and  Kepler.  A 
dismal  interval  of  almost  twenty  centuries  parts  Hero, 
whose  first  steam-engine  revolved  in  the  Serapion,  from 
James  Watt,  who  has  revolutionized  the  industry  of  the 
world.  What  a  fearful  blank!  Yet  not  a  blank,  for  it 
had  its  products — hundreds  of  patristic  folios  filled  with 
obsolete  speculation,  oppressing  the  shelves  of  antique 
libraries,  enveloped  in  dust,  and  awaiting  the' worm. 

Never  was  a  more  disastrous  policy  adopted  than  the 
Byzantine  suppression  of  profane  learning.  It  its  deplorable 
iif  scarcely  possible  now  to  realize  the  mental  rtsuits. 
degradation  produced  when  that  system  was  at  its  height. 
Many  of  the  noblest  philosophical  and  scientific  works  of 
antiquity  disappeared  from  the  language  in  which  they 
had  been  written,  and  were  only  recovered,  for  the  use  of 
later  and  better  ages,  from  translations  which  the  Saracens 
had  made  into  Arabic.  The  insolent  assumption  of  wisdom 
by  those  who  held  the  sword  crushed  every  intellectual 
aspiration.  Yet,  though  triumphant  for  a  time,  this  policy 
necessarily  contained  the  seeds  of  its  own  ignominious 
destruction.  A  day  must  inevitably  come  when  so  grievoua 
0a  wrong  to  the  human  race  must  be  exposed,  and  exe- 
crated, and  punished — a  day  in  which  the  poems  of  Homel 


388  DIGRESSION   ON   THE   PASSAGE  OF  [dl.  XI11. 

might  once  more  be  read,  the  immortal  statues  of  the  Greek 
insecurity  of  sculptors  find  worshippers,  and  the  demonstra- 
the  Byzantine  tions  of  Euclid  a  consenting  intellect.  But  that 

unfortunate,  that  audacious  policy  of  usurpation 
once  entered  upon,  there  was  no  going  back.  He  who  is 
infallible  must  needs  be  immutable.  In  its  very  nature  the 
action  implied  compulsion,  compulsion  implied  the  posses- 
sion of  power,  and  the  whole  policy  insured  an  explosion 
the  moment  that  the  means  of  compression  should  be  weak. 
It  is  isaid  that  when  the  Saracens  captured  Alexandria, 
their  victorious  general  sent  to  the  khalif  to  know  his 
pleasure  respecting  the  library.  The  answer  was  in  the 
spirit  of  the  age.  "  If  the  books  be  confirmatory  of  the 
Bieotryoftha  Koran,  they  are  superfluous;  if  contradictory, 
first  Saracens,  they  are  pernicious.  Let  them  be  burnt."  At 
this  moment,  to  all  human  appearance,  the  Mohammedan 
autocrat  was  on  the  point  of  joining  in  the  evil  policy  of 
the  Byzantine  sovereign.  But  fortunately  it  was  but  the 
impulse  of  a  moment,  rectified  forthwith,  and  a  noble 
course  of  action  was  soon  pursued.  The  Arab  incorporated 
into  his  literature  the  wisdom  of  those  he  had  conquered. 
The  nobler  ^n  *nus  conceding  to  knowledge  a  free  and  un- 
poiicys<K>n  embarrassed  career,  and,  instead  of  repressing, 

encouraging  to  the  utmost  all  kinds  of  learning 
did  the  Koran  take  any  harm  ?  It  was  a  high  statesman- 
ship which,  almost  from  the  beginning  of  the  impulse  from 
Mecca,  bound  down  to  a  narrow,  easily  comprehended,  and 
easily  expressed  dogma  the  exacted  belief,  and  in  all  other 
particulars  let  the  human  mind  go  free. 

In  the  preceding  paragraphs  1  have  criticized  the  course 
of  events,  condemning  or  applauding  the  actions  and  the 
actors  as  circumstances  seem  to  require,  herein  following 
the  usual  course,  which  implies  that  men  can  control 
affairs,  and  that  the  agent  is  to  be  held  responsible  for  his 

deed.  We  have,  however,  only  to  consider  tho 
caus^ofthe  course  of  our  own  lives  to  be  satisfied  to  how 
preceding  limited  an  extent  such  is  the  case.  We  are,  as 

we  often  say,  the  creatures  of  circumstances.  In 
that  expression  there  is  a  higher  philosophy  than  might 
at  first  sight  appear.  Our  actions  are  not  the  pure  and 
unmingled  results  of  our  desires ;  they  are  the  offspring  of 


CH.  XIII.J     THE   ARABIANS  TO   THEIR   AGE  OF   REASON.  389 

many  various  and  mixed  conditions.  In  that  which  seenis 
to  be  the  most  voluntary  decision  there  enters  much 
that  is  altogether  involuntary — more,  perhaps,  than  we 
generally  suppose.  And,  in  like  manner,  those  who 
are  imagined  to  have  exercised  an  irresponsible  and 
spontaneous  influence  in  determining  public  policy,  and 
thereby  fixing  the  fate  of  nations,  will  be  found,  when  we 
understand  their  position  more  correctly,  to  have  been  the 
creatures  of  circumstances  altogether  independent  and 
irrespective  of  them — circumstances  which  they  never 
created,  of  whoso  influence  they  only  availed  themselves. 
They  were  placed  in  a  current  which  drifted  them 
irresistibly  along. 

From  this  more  accurate  point  of  view  we  should  there- 
fore consider  the  course  of  these  events,  recognizing  the 
principle  that  the  affairs  of  men  pass  forward  in  a 
determinate  way,  expanding  and  unfolding  themselves. 
And  hence  we  see  that  the  things  of  which  we  have  spoken 
as  though  they  were  matters  of  choice  were,  in  reality, 
forced  upon  their  apparent  authors  by  the  necessity  of  tho 
times.  But,  in  truth,  they  should  be  considered  as  tho 
presentations  of  a  certain  phase  of  life  which  nations  in 
their  onward  course  sooner  or  later  assume.  In  the  in- 
dividual, how  well  we  know  that  a  sober  moderation  of 
action,  an  appropriate  gravity  of  demeanour,  belong  to  the 
mature  period  of  life ;  a.  change  from  the  wanton  wilful- 
ness  of  youth,  which -may  be  ushered  in,  or  its  beginning 
marked,  by  many  accidental  incidents  :  in  one  perhaps  by 
domestic  bereavements,  in  another  by  the  loss  of  fortune, 
in  a  third  by  ill  health.  We  are  correct  enough  in 
imputing  to  such  trials  the,  change  of  character,  but  we 
never  deceive  ourselves  by  supposing  that  it  would  have 
failed  to  take  place  had  those  incidents  not  occurred. 
There  runs  an  irresistible  destiny  in  the  midst  of  all  these 
vicissitudes. 

We  may  therefore  be  satisfied  that,  whatever  may  have 
been  tho  particular  form  of  the  events  of  which  Succe88ion  of 
we  have  had  occasion  to  speak,  their  order  of  affairs  deter- 
succession  was  a  matter  of  destiny,  and  altogether  m 
beyond  the  reach  of  any  individual.     We  may   condemn 
the  Byzantine  monarchs,  or  applaud  the  Arabian  khalifs— 


390  DIGRESSION  ON   THE   PASSAGE  OF  [cH.  XIII. 

our  blame  and  our  praise  must  be  set  at  their  proper  value. 
Europe  was  passing  from  its  Age  of  Inquiry  to  its  Age  of 
Faith.  In  such  a  transition  the  predestined  underlies  the 
voluntary.  There  are  analogies  between  the  life  of  a 
nation  and  that  of  an  individual,  who,  though  he  may  bo 
in  one  respect  the  maker  of  his  own  fortunes  for  happiness  or 
for  misery,  for  good  or  for  evil,  though  he  remains  here  or 
goes  there,  as  his  inclinations  prompt,  though  he  does  this 
or  abstains  from  that  as  he  chooses,  is  nevertheless  held 
fast  by  an  inexorable  fate — a  fate  which  brought  him  into 
the  world  involuntarily  so  far  as  he  was  concerned,  which 
presses  him  forward  through  a  definite  career,  the  stages  of 
which  are  absolutely  invariable— infancy,  childhood,  youth 
maturity,  old  age,  with  all  their  characteristic  actions  and 
passions,  and  which  removes  him  from  the  scene  at  the 
appointed  time,  in  most  cases  against  his  will.  So  also  it 
is  with  nations;  the  voluntary  is  only  the  outward 
semblance,  covering,  but  hardly  hiding  the  predetermined. 
Over  the  events  of  life  we  may  have  control,  but  none 
whatever  over  the  law  of  its  progress.  There  is  a 
geometry  that  applies  to  nations,  an  equation  of  their 
curve  of  advance.  That  no  mortal  man  can  touch. 

We  have  now  to  examine  in  what  manner  the  glimmer- 
ing lamp  of  knowledge  was  sustained  when  it  was  all  but 

ready  to  die  out.  By  the  Arabians  it  was 
science  in  its  handed  down  to  us.  The  grotesque  forms  of 
stage  of  sor-  BOme  of  those  who  took  charge  of  it  are  not 

without  interest.  They  exhibit  a  strange 
mixture  of  the  Neoplatonist,  the  Pantheist,  the  Moham- 
medan, the  Christian.  In  such  untoward  times,  it  was 
perhaps  needful  that  the  strongest  passions  of  men 
should  be  excited  and  science  stimulated  by  inquiries  for 
methods  of  turning  lead  into  gold,  or  of  prolonging  life 
indefinitely.  We  have  now  to  deal  with  the  philosopher's 
stone,  the  elixir  vitae,  the  powder  of  projection,  magical 
mirrors,  perpetual  lamps,  the  transmutation  of  metals.  In 
smoky  caverns  under  ground,  where  the  great  work  is 
stealthily  carried  on,  the  alchemist  and  his  familiar  are 
busy  with  their  alembics,  cucurbites,  and  pelicans,  main- 
taining their  fires  for  so  many  years  that  salamanders  are 
asserted  to  be  born  in  them. 


CH.  XIII. J     THE   ARABIANS  TO  THEIR  AGE  OF   REASON.  391 

Experimental  science  was  thus  restored,  though  under  a 
very  strange  aspect,  by  the  Arabians.  Already  it  dis- 
plaj'ed  its  connexion  with  medicine — a  connexion  derived 
from  the  influence  of  the  Nestorians  and  the  Jews.  It  is 
necessary  for  us  to  consider  briefly  the  relations  of  each, 
,  and  of  the  Nestorians  first. 

In  Chapter  IX.  we  have  related  the  rivalries  of  Cyril 
the  Bishop  of  Alexandria,  and  Nestorius,  the  Bishop  of 
Constantinople.  The  theological  point  of  their  Tbe  Nes- 
quarrel  was  whether  it  is  right  torregard  the  tor'l^ns- 
Virgin  Mary  as  the  mother  of  G^fc"  "To  an  Egyptian  still 
tainted  with  ancient  superstition,  there  was  nothing 
shocking  in  such  a  doctrine.  His  was  the  country  of  I  sis. 
St.  Cyril,  who  is  to  be  looked  upon  as  a  mere  ecclesiastical 
demagogue,  found  his  purposes  answered  by  adopting  it 
without  any  scruple.  But  in  Greece  there  still  remained 
traces  of  the  old  philosophy.  A  recollection  of  the  ideas 
of  Plato  had  not  altogether  died  out.  There  were  some  by 
whom  it  was  not  possible  for  the  Egyptian  doctrine  to  be 
received.  Such,  perhaps,  was  Nestorius,  whose  sincerity 
Was  finally  approved  by  an  endurance  of  persecutions,  by 
his  Bufferings,  and  his  death.  He  and  his  followers, 
insisting  on  the  plain  inference  of  the  last  verse  of  the  first 
chapter  of  St.  Matthew,  together  with  the  fifty-fifth  and 
fifty-sixth  verses  of  the  thirteenth  of  the  same  Gospel, 
could  never  be  brought  to  an  acknowledgment  of  the 
perpetual  virginity  of  the  new  queen  of  heaven. 
We  have  described  the  issue  of  the  Council  of  theTirgimty 
Ephesus:  the  Egyptian  faction  gained  the  °f  the  queen 

•   j.  .LI          -3     e  if         i       -U   •  n    j   •        of  heaven. 

victory,  the  aid  or  court  females  being  called  in, 
and  Nestorius,  being  deposed  from  his  office,  was  driven, 
with  his  friends  into  exile.  The  philosophical  tendency 
of  the  vanquished  was  soon  indicated  by  their  actions. 
While  their  leader  was  tormented  in  an  African  oasis, 
many  of  them  emigrated  to  the  Euphrates,  and  founded  the 
Chaldaean  Church.  Under  its  auspices  the  college  at 
Edessa,  with  several  connected  schools,  arose.  In  these 
were  translated  into  Syriac  many  Greek  and  Latin  works, 
as  those  of  Aristotle  and  Pliny.  It  was  the  Nestorians 
who,  in  connexion  with  the  Jews,  founded  the  medical 


392  DIGRESSION    ON   THE  PASSAGE   OF  [CH.  XIII. 

college  of  Djondesabour,  and  first  instituted  a  system  of 
rhe  boinn  u,  academical  honours  which  has  descended  to 
cultivate  our  times.  It  was  the  Nestorians  who  were  not 
medicine.  Qn]y  permitte(i  ^y  the  khalifs  the  free  exercise  of 
their  religion,  but  even  intrusted  with  the  education  of 
tho  children  of  the  great  Mohammedan  families,  a  liber- 
ality in  striking  contrast  to  the  fanaticism  of  Europe. 
The  Arabs  The  Khalif  Alraschid  went  so  far  as  even  to 
affiliate  with  place  all  his  public  schools  under  the  super- 
intendence of  John  Masue,  one  of  that  sect. 
Under  the  auspices  of  these  learned  men  the  Arabian 
academies  were  furnished  with  translations  of  Greek 
authors,  and  vast  libraries  were  collected  in  Asia. 

Through  this  connexion  with  the  Arabs,  Nestorian 
Their  great  missionaries  found  means  to  disseminate  their 
spread  in  the  form  of  Christianity  all  over  Asia,  as  far  as 
East>  Malabar  and  China.  The  successful  intrigues  of 

the  Egyptian  politicians  at  Ephesus  had  no  influence  in 
those  remote  countries,  the  Asiatic  churches  of  the  Nestorian 
and  Jacobite  persuasions  outnumbering  eventually  all  the 
European  Christians  of  the  Greek  and  Roman  churches 
combined.  In  later  times  the  papal  government  has  made 
great  exertions  to  bring  about  an  understanding  with 
them,  but  in  vain. 

The  expulsion  oi  this  party  from  Constantinople  was 
accomplished  by  the  same  persons  and  policy  concerned  in 
destroying  philosophy  in  Alexandria.  St.  C3rril  was  the 
imd  pereecu-  representative  of  an  illiterate  and  unscrupulous 
tions  in  the  faction  that  had  come  into  the  possession  of 
power  through  intrigues  with  the  females  of  the 
imperial  court,  and  bribery  of  eunuchs  and  parasites. 
The  same  spirit  that  had  murdered  Hypatia  tormented 
Nestorius  to  death.  Of  the  contending  parties,  one  was 
respectable  and  had  a  tincture  of  learning,  the  other 
ignorant,  and  not  hesitating  at  the  employment  of  brute 
force,  deportation,  assassination.  Unfortunately  for  the 
world,  tho  unscrupulous  party  carried  the  day. 

By    their    descent,    the    Nestorians    had    become    the 

They  inherit    depositaries  of  the  old  Greek  medical  science. 

the  old  Greek  Its  great  names  they  revered.     They  collected, 

:mc'        with    the    utmost    assiduity,    whatever   works 


CH.  XIII.]     THE  ARABIANS  TO   THEIR   AGE  OF  REASON.  393 

remained  on  medical  topics,  whether  of  a  Greek  or  Alex- 
andrian origin,  from  the  writings  of  Hippocrates,  called, 
with  affectionate  veneration  by  his  successors,  "  The 
Divine  Old  Man,"  down  to  those  of  the  Ptolemaic  school. 

Greek  medicine  arose  in  the  temples  of  ^Esculapius, 
whither  the  sick  were  in  the  habit  of  resorting  for  the 
assistance  of  the  god.     It  does  not  appear  that  any  fee 
was  exacted  for  the  celestial  advice ;    but  the 
gratitude  of  the  patient  was  frequently  displayed  Greek  me- 
by  optional  gifts,  and  votive  tablets  presented  ^' "y~As~ 
to  the  temple,  setting  forth  the  circumstances 
of  the  case,  were  of  value  to  those   disposed   to  enter 
on  medical  studies.     The  Asclepions   thus  became  both 
hospitals  and  schools.     They  exercised,  from  their  posi- 
tion, a  tendency  to  incorporate  medical  and  ecclesiastical 
pursuits.     At  this  time  it  was  universally  believed  that 
every  sickness  was  due  to  the  anger  of  some  offended  god, 
and  especially  was  this  supposed  to  be  the  case  in  epidemics 
and  plagues.     Such  a  paralyzing  notion  was  necessarily 
inconsistent  with  any  attempt  at  the  relief  of  communities 
by  the  exercise  of  sanitary  measures.     In  our  times  it  is 
still  difficult  to  remove  from  the  minds  of  the  illiterate 
classes   this   ancient   opinion,  or  to   convince   them  that 
Under  such  visitations  we  ought  to  help  ourselves,  and 
not  expect  relief  by  penance  and  supplications,  unless  we 
join   therewith    rigorous    personal,    domestic,    municipal 
cleanliness,  fresh  air,  and  light.    The  theological  Hippocrates 
doctrine  of  the  nature  of  disease  indicated  its  <icstmys  the 

•  in         TT<  3    ih- oiogical 

means  ot  cure,  t  or  Hippocrates  was  reserved  ti.eory  of 
the  great  glory  of  destroying  them  both,  re--  dlsta-se- 
placing  them  by  more  practical  and  material  ideas,  and, 
from  the  votive  tablets,  traditions,  and  other  sources, 
together  with  his  own  admirable  observations,  compiling 
a  body  of  medicine.  The  necessary  consequence  of  his 
great  success  was  the  separation  of  the  pursuits  of  the 
physician  from  those  of  the  priest.  Not  that  so  great  a 
revolution,  implying  the  diversion  of  profitable  gains 
from  the  ancient  channel,  could  have  been  accomplished 
without  a  struggle.  We  should  reverence  the  memory  of 
Hippocrates  for  the  complete  manner  in  which  he  effected 
that  object. 

18* 


394  DIGRESSION   ON  THE  PASSAGE  OF  [CH.  XIH 

Of  the  works  attributed  to  Hippocrates,  many  arc 
doubtless  the  production  of  his  family,  his  descendants,  01 
Writings  or  his  pupils.  The  inducements  to  literary  forgery 
Hippocrates.  jn  ^he  times  of  the  Ptolemies,  who  paid  very 
high  prices  for  books  of  reputation,  have  been  the  cause 
of  much  difficulty  among  critics  in  determining  such 
questions  of  authorship.  The  works  indisputably  written 
by  Hippocrates  display  an  extent  of  knowledge  answering 
to  the  authority  of  his  name ;  his  vivid  descriptions  have 
never  been  excelled,  if  indeed  they  have  ever  been  equalled. 
The  Hippoctatic  face  of  the  dying  is  still  retained  in 
our  medical  treatises  in  the  original  terms,  without  any 
improvement. 

In  his  medical  doctrine,  Hippocrates  starts  with  the 
postulate  that  the  body  is  composed  of  the  four 

His  opinions.     *  J  r  j^ur 

elements.  ±  rom  these  are  formed  the  four 
cardinal  humours.  He  thinks  that  the  humours  are  liable 
to  undergo  change;  that  health  consists  in  their  right 
constitution  and  proper  adjustment  as  to  quantity  ;  disease, 
in  their  impurities  and  inequalities ;  that  the  disordered 
humours  undergo  spontaneous  changes  or  coction,  a  process 
requiring  time,  and  hence  the  explanation  of  critical  days 
and  critical  discharges.  The  primitive  disturbance  of  tho 
humours  he  attributed  to  a  great  variety  of  causes,  chiefly 
to  the  influence  of  physical  circumstances,  such  as  heat, 
cold,  air,  water.  Unlike  his  contemporaries,  he  did  not 
impute  all  the  afflictions  of  man  to  the  anger  of  the  gods. 
Along  with  those  influences  of  an  external  kind,  he  studied 
the  special  peculiarities  of  the  human  system,  how  it  is 
modified  by  climate  and  manner  of  life,  exhibiting  different 
predisposi  tions  at  different  seasons  of  the  year.  H  e  believed 
that  the  innate  heat  of  the  body  varies  with  the  period  of 
life,  being  greatest  in  infancy  and  least  in  old  age,  and 
that  hence  morbific  agents  affect  us  with  greater  or  less 
facility  at  different  times.  For  this  reason  it  is  that  the 
physician  should  attend  very  closely  to  the  condition  of 
those  in  whom  he  is  interested  as  respects  their  diet  and 
exercise,  for  thereby  he  is  able  not  only  to  regulate  their 
general  susceptibility,  but  also  to  exert  a  control  over  the 
course  of  their  diseases. 
Referring  diseases  in  general  to  the  condition  or  dis- 


CH.  XIII.]     THE  ARABIANS  TO   THEIR  AGE  0?  REASON.  395 

tribution  of  the  humours,  for  he  regards  inflammation  as 
the  passing  of  blood  into  parts  not  previously  containing 
it,  he  considers  that  so  long  as  those  liquids  occupy  the 
system  in  an  unnatural  or  adulterated  state,  disease  con- 
tinues ;  but  as  they  ferment  or  undergo  coction,  various 
characteristic  symptoms  appear,  and,  when  their  elabora- 
tion is  completed,  they  are  discharged  by  perspiration  or 
other  secretions,  by  alvine  dejections,  etc.  But  where 
such  a  general  relief  of  the  system  is  not  accomplished, 
the  peccant  humours  may  be  localized  in  some  particular 
organ  or  special  portion,  and  erysipelatous  inflammation, 
mortification,  or  other  such  manifestations  ensue.  It 
is  in  aiding  this  elimination  from  the  system  that  the 
physician  may  signally  manifest  his  skill.  His  power  is 
displayed  much  more  at  this  epoch  than  by  the  control  he 
can  exert  over  the  process  of  coction.  Now  may  he  invoke 
the  virtues  of  the  hellebores,  the  white  and  the  black, 
now  may  he  use  elaterium  The  critical  days  which 
answer  to  the  periods  of  the  process  of  coction  are  to  be 
watched  with  anxiety,  and  the  correspondence  of  the  state 
of  the  patient  with  the  expected  condition  which  he  ought 
to  show  at  those  epochs  ascertained.  Hence  the  physician 
may  bo  able  to  predict  the  probable  course  of  the  disease 
during  the  remainder  of  its  career,  and  gather  true  notions 
as  to  the  practice  it  would  be  best  for  him  to  pursue  to  aid 
Nature  in  her  operations. 

It  thus  appears  that  the  practice  of  medicine  in  the 
hands  of  Hippocrates  had  reference  rather  to  the  The  character 
course  or  career  of  disease  than  to  its  special  ofhisprac- 
nature.  Nothing  more  than  this  masterly  con-  tlce' 
ception  is  wanted  to  impress  us  with  his  surprizing 
scientific  power.  He  watches  the  manner  in  which  the 
humours  are  undergoing  their  fermenting  coction,  the 
phenomena  displayed  in  the  critical  days,  the  aspect  and 
nature  of  the  critical  discharges.  He  does  not  attempt 
to  check  the  process  going  on,  but  simply  to  assist  the 
natural  operation. 

When  we  consider  the  period  at  which  Hippocrates 
lived,  B.C.  400,  and  the  circumstances  under  which  he  had 
studied  medicine,  w.e  cannot  fail  to  admire  the  very  great 
advance  ho  made.  His  merit  is  conspicuous  in  rejecting 


396  DIGRESSION    ON  THE  PASSAGE  OF  [CH.  XIIL 

the  superstitious  tendency  of  his  times  by  teaching  his 
disciples  to  impute  a  proper  agency  to  physical  causes. 
He  altogether  discarded  the  imaginary  influences  then  in 
vogue.  For  the  gods  he  substituted,  with  singular  felicity, 
Impersonal  Nature.  It  was  the  interest  of  those  who  were 
connected  with  the  temples  of  ^Esculapius  to  refer  all  the 
diseases  of  men  to  supernatural  agency;  their  doctrine 
being  that  every  affliction,  should  be  attributed  to  the 
anger  of  some  offended  god,  and  restoration  to  health  most 
certainly  procured  by  conciliating  his  power.  So  far, 
then,  as  such  interests  were  concerned,  any  contradiction 
of  those  doctrines,  any  substitution  of  the  material  for  the 
supernatural,  must  needs  have  met  with  reprehension. 
Yet  such  opposition  seems  in  no  respect  to  have  weighed 
with  this  great  physician,  who  developed  his  theory  and 
pursued  his  practice  without  giving  himself  any  concern 
in  that  respect.  He  bequeathed  an  example  to  all  who 
succeeded  him  in  his  noble  profession,  and  taught  them 
not  to  hesitate  in  encountering  the  prejudices  and  passions 
of  the  present  for  the  sake  of  the  truth,  and  to  trust  for 
their  reward  in  the  just  appreciation  of  a  future  age. 

With  such  remarks  we  may  assert  that  the  medical 
philosophy  of  Hippocrates  is  worthy  of  our  highest 
His  doctrine  admiration,  since  it  exhibits  the  scientific  con- 
is  truly  ditions  of  deduction  and  induction.  The  theory 
>lflc'  itself  is  compact  and  clear ;  its  lineaments  are 
completely  Grecian.  It  presents,  to  one  who  will  contem- 
plate it  with  due  allowance  for  its  times,  the  characteristic 
quick-sightedness,  penetration,  and  power  of  the  Greek 
mind,  fully  vindicating  for  its  author  the  title  which  has 
been  conferred  upon  him  by  his  European  successors — the 
Father  of  Medicine — and  perhaps  inducing  us  to  excuse 
the  enthusiastic  assertion  of  Galen,  that  we  ought  to 
reverence  the  words  of  Hippocrates  as  the  voice  of  God. 

The  Hippocratic  school  of  Cos  found  a  rival  in  the  school 
of  Cnidos,  which  offered  not  only  a  different  view  of  the 
The  school  of  nature  of  disease,  but  also  taught  a  different 
Cnidos.  principle  for  its  cure.  The  Cnidians  paid  more 
particular  attention  to  the  special  symptoms  in  individual 
cases,  and  pursued  a  less  active  treatment,  declining, 
whenever  they  could,  a  resort  to  drastic  purgatives,  veno- 


CH.  XIII.]     THE  ARABIANS  TO   THEIR   AGE  OF   REASOFo  397 

section,  or  other  energetic  means.  As  might  be  expected, 
the  professional  activity  of  these  schools  called  into  ex- 
istence many  able  men,  and  produced  many  excellent 
works :  thus  Phi  listen  wrote  on  the  regimen  for  persons 
in  health ;  Diocles  on  hygiene  and  gymnastics;  Praxagoras 
on  the  pulse,  showing  that  it  is  a  measure  of  the  force  of 
disease.  The  Asclepion  of  Cnidos  continued  isdestroye<i 
until  the  time  of  Constantino,  when  it  was  byConstan- 
destroyed  along  with  many  other  pagan  esta-  u 
blishments.  The  union  between  the  priesthood  and  the 
profession  was  gradually  becoming  less  and  less  close ; 
and,  as  the  latter  thus  separated  itself,  divisions  or  depart- 
ments arose  in  it,  both  as  regards  subjects,  sucn  as  phar- 
macy, surgery,  etc.,  and  also  as  respects  the  position  of  its 
cultivators,  some  pursuing  it  as  a  liberal  science,  and  some 
as  a  mere  industrial  occupation.  In  those  times,  as  in  our 
own,  many  who  were  not  favoured  with  the  gilts  of 
fortune  were  constrained  to  fall  into  the  latter  ranks. 
Thus  Aristotle,  than  whom  few  have  ever  exerted  a  greater 
intellectual  influence  upon  humanity,  after  spending  his 
patrimony  in  liberal  pursuits,  kept  an  apothe-  cia>s  s  of 
cary's  shop  at  Athens.  Aristotle  the  druggist,  physicians, 
behind  his  counter,  selling  medicines  to  chance  customers, 
is  Aristotle  the  great  writer,  whose  dictum  was  final  with 
the  schoolmen  of  the  Middle  Ages.  As  a  general  thing, 
however,  the  medical  professors  were  drawn  from  the 
philosophical  class.  Outside  of  these  divisions,  and  though 
in  all  ages  continually  repudiated  by  the  profession,  yet 
continually  hovering  round  it,  was  a  host  of  impostors 
and  quacks,  as  there  will  always  be  so  long  as  there  are 
weak-minded  and  shallow  men  to  be  deluded,  and  vain 
and  silly  women  to  believe. 

When    the   Alexandrian    Museum  was  originated   by 
Ptolemy  Philadelphus,  its  studies  were  arranged  in  four 
faculties — literature,   mathematics,    astronomy,  Effyptianme. 
medicine.     These  divisions  are,  however,  to  be  dicine.  Tbe 
understood  comprehensively :    thus,  under   the 
faculty  of  medicine  were  included  such  subjects  as  natural 
history.     The  physicians  who  received  the  first  appoint- 
ments were   Cleombrotus,  Herophilus,  and    Erasistratus ; 
among  the   subordinate   professors  was   Philo-Stephanus, 


398  DIGRESSION   ON   THE  PASSAGE   OF  [CH.  XIIL 

who  had  charge  of  natural  history,  and  was  directed  to 
write  a  book  on  Fishes.  The  elevated  ideas  of  the  founder 
cannot  be  better  illustrated  than  by  the  manner  in  which 
he  organized  his  medical  school.  It  was  upon  the  sure 
basis  of  anatomy.  Herophilus  and  his  colleagues  were 
authorized  to  resort  to  the  dissection  of  the  dead,  and  to 
ascertain,  by  that  only  trustworthy  method,  the 
founds  m»  true  structure  of  the  human  body.  The  strong 
dicine  on  hand  of  Ptolemy  resolutely  carried  out  his  design, 

anatomy.  ,     .  '  .f  ,•  1 

though  in  a  country  where  popular  sentiment 
was  strongly  opposed  to  such  practices.  To  touch  a  corpse 
in  Egypt  was  an  abomination.  Nor  was  it  only  this  great 
man's  intention  to  ascertain  the  human  structure  ;  he  also 

took  measures  to  discover  the  mode  in  which  its 

functions  are  carried  forward,  the  manner  in 
hunum  Vivl"  wn^cn  ^  works.  To  this  end  he  authorized  his 

anatomists  10  make  vivisections  both  of  animals, 
and  also  of  criminals  who  had  been  condemned  to  death, 
herein  finding  for  himself  that  royal  road  in  physiology 
which  Euclid  once  told  him,  at  a  dinner  in  the  Museum, 
did  not  exist  in  geometry,  and  defending  the  act  from 
moral  criticism  by  the  plea  that,  as  the  culprits  had  already 
forfeited  their  lives  to  the  law,  it  was  no  injury  to  make 
riivRi.iansof  them  serviceable  to  the  interests  of  humanity. 
UIH  Ai.'xiiu-  Herophilus  had  been  educated  at  Cos;  his 
'°°1'  pathological  views  were  those  known  as  hu- 
mouralism  ;  his  treatment  active,  after  the  manner  of  Hip- 
pocrates, upon  whose  works  he  wrote  commentaries.  His 
original  investigations  were  numerous  ;  they  were  em- 
bodied, with  his  peculiar  views,  in  treatises  on  the  practice 
of  medicine ;  on  obstetrics ;  on  the  eye ;  on  the  pulse, 
which  he  properly  referred  to  contractions  of  the  heart. 
He  was  aware  of  the  existence  of  the  lacteals,  and  their 
anatomical  relation  to  the  mesenteric  glands.  Erasistratus, 
his  colleague,  was  a  pupil  of  Theophrastus  and  Chrysippus : 
he,  too,  cultivated  anatomy.  He  described  the  structure 
of  the  heart,  its  connexions  with  the  arteries  and  veins, 
but  fell  into  the  mistake  that  the  former  vessels  were 
for  the  conveyance  of  air,  tho  latter  for  that  of  blood. 
He  knew  that  there  are  two  kinds  of  nerves,  thoso  of 
motion  and  those  of  sensation.  He  referred  all  fevers  to 


CH.  XIII.]     THE  ARABIANS  TO   THEIE   AGE  OF  REASON.  399 

inflammatory  states,  and  in  his  practice  differed  from  the 
received  methods  of  Hippocrates  by  observing  a  less  active 
treatment. 

By  these  physicians  the  study  of  medicine  in  Alexandria 
was  laid  upon  the  solid  foundation  of  anatomy. 
Besides  them  there  were  many  other  instructors  ^JusTin" 
in  specialties ;  and,  indeed,  the  temple  of  Serapis  suwy  and 

j  f  T_         -A.   i    j.1-         -IT.'  •       j    pharmacy. 

was  used  for  a  hospital,  the  sick  being  received 
into  it,  and  persons  studying  medicine  admitted  for  the 
purpose  of  familiarizing  themselves  with  the  appearance 
of  disease,  precisely  as  in  similar  institutions  at  the 
present  time.  Of  course,  under  such  circumstances,  the 
departments  of  surgery  and  pharmacy  received  many 
improvements,  and  produced  many  able  men.  Among 
these  improvements  may  be  mentioned  new  operations  for 
lithotomy,  instruments  for  crushing  calculi,  for  reducing 
dislocations,  etc.  The  active  commerce  of  Egypt  afforded 
abundant  opportunity  for  extending  the  materia  medica 
by  the  introduction  of  a  great  many  herbs  and  drugs. 

The  medical  school  of  Alexandria,  which  was  thus 
originally  based  upon  dissection,  in  the  course  of  time  loot 
much  of  its  scientific  spirit.  But  the  influence  jyciineof 
of  the  first  teachers  may  be  traced  through  Alexandrian 
many  subsequent  ages.  Thus  Galen  divides  the  m 
profession  in  his  time  into  Herophilians  and  Erasistratians. 
Various  sects  had  arisen  in  the  course  of  events,  as  the 
Dogmatists,  who  asserted  that  diseases  can  only  be  treated 
correctly  by  the  aid  of  a  knowledge  of  the  structure  and 
functions,  the  action  of  drugs,  and  the  changes  induced  in 
the  affected  parts ;  they  insisted,  therefore,  upon  the 
necessity  of  anatomy,  physiology,  therapeutics,  and  pa- 
thology. They  claimed  a  descent  from  Hippocrates.  Their 
antagonists,  the  Empirics,  ridiculed  such  knowledge  as 
fanciful  or  unattainable,  and  relied  on  experience  alone. 
These  subdivisions  were  not  limited  to  sects ;  they  may 
also  be  observed  under  the  form  of  schools.  Even  Erasis- 
tratus  himself,  toward  the  close  of  his  life,  through  some 
dispute  or  misunderstanding,  appears  to  have  left  the 
Museum  and  established  a  school  at  Smyrna.  The  study 
of  the  various  brances  of  medicine  was  also  pursued  by 
others  out  of  the  immediate  ranks  of  the  profession. 


400  DIGRESSION   ON  THE   PASSAGE   OF  [CH.  XIH. 

Mithridates,  king  of  Pontua,  thus  devoted  himself  to  the 
examination  of  poisons  and  the  discovery  of  antidotes. 

What  a  fall  from  this  scientific  medicine  to  the  miracle  - 
cure  which  soon  displaced  it !  "What  a  descent  from 
Hippocrates  and  the  great  Alexandrian  physicians  to  the 
shrines  of  saints  and  the  monks ! 

To  the  foregoing  sketch  of  the  state  of  Greek  medicine 
The  Jewish  in  its  day  of  glory,  I  must  add  an  examination 
physicians.  of  ^he  same  science  among  the  Jews  subsequently 
to  the  second  century ;  it  is  necessary  for  the  proper 
understanding  of  the  origin  of  Saracen  learning. 

In  philosophy  the  Jews  had  been  gradually  emanci- 
pating themselves  from  the  influence  of  ancient  traditions  ; 
their  advance  in  this  direction  is  shown  by  the  active 
manner  in  which  they  aided  in  the  development  of  Neo- 
platonism.  After  the  destruction  -of  Jerusalem  all  Syria 
and  Mesopotamia  were  full  of  Jewish  schools; 

Their emanci-   ••      ,    ,1  i_-i  -i  11          j.i 

pation  from  but  the  great  philosophers,  as  well  as  the  great 
natural61"  merchants  of  the  nation,  were  residents  of 
Alexandria.  Persecution  and  dispersion,  if  they 
served  no  other  good  purpose,  weakened  the  grasp  of  the 
ecclesiastic.  Perhaps,  too,  repeated  disappointments  in 
an  expected  coming  of  a  national  temporal  Mes-iah  had 
brought  those  who  were  now  advanced  in  intellectual 
progress  to  a  just  appreciation  of  ancient  traditions.  In 
this  mental  emancipation  their  physicians  took  the  lead. 
For  long,  while  their  pursuits  were  yet  in  infancy,  a  bitter 
animosity  had  been  manifested  toward  them  by  the 
Levites,  whose  manner  of  healing  was  by  prayer,  expiatory 
sacrifice,  and  miracle  ;  or,  if  they  descended  to  less  super- 
natural means,  by  an  application  of  such  remedies  as  are 
popular  with  the  vulgar  everywhere.  Thus,  to  a  person 
bitten  by  a  mad  dog,  they  would  give  the  diaphragm  of  a 
dog  to  eat.  As  examples  of  a  class  of  men  soon  to  take  no 
obscure  share  in  directing  human  progress  may  be  men- 
tioned Hannina,  A.D.  205,  often  spoken  of  by  his  successors 
as  the  earliest  of  Jewish  physicians;  Samuel,  equally 
distinguished  as  an  astronomer,  accoucheur,  and  oculist, 
the  inventor  of  a  collyrium  which  bore  his  name;  Eab, 
an  anatomist,  whc  wrote  a  treatise  on  the  structure  of  tho 


CH.  XIII.]     THE   ARABIANS   TO   THEIR   AGE   OF   REASON.  401 

body  of  man  as  ascertained  by  dissections,  thereby  attain- 
ing such  celebrity  that  the  people,  after  his  death,  used 
the  earth  of  his  grave  as  a  medicine ;  Abba  Oumna,  whose 
study  of  insanity  plainly  shows  that  he  gave  a  material 
interpretation  to  the  national  doctrine  of  possession  by 
devils,  and  replaced  that  strange  delusion  by  the  scientific 
explanation  of  corporeal  derangement.  This  honourable 
physician  made  it  a  rule  never  to  take  a  fee  from  the  poor, 
and  never  to  make  any  difference  in  his  assiduous  atten- 
tion between  them  and  the  rich.  These  men  may  be  taken 
as  a  type  of  their  successors  to  the  seventh  century,'  when 
the  Oriental  schools  were  broken  up  in  consequence  of  the 
Arab  military  movements.  In  the  Talmudic  literature 
there  are  all  the  indications  of  a  transitional  state,  so  far 
as  medicine  is  concerned;  the  supernatural  seems  to  be 
passing  into  the  physical,  the  ecclesiastical  is  mixed  up 
with  the  exact :  thus  a  rabbi  may  cure  disease  by  the 
ecclesiastical  operation  of  laying  on  of  hands ;  but  of 
febrile  disturbances,  an  exact,  though  erroneous  explanation 
is  given,  and  paralysis  of  the  hind  legs  of  an  animal  is 
correctly  referred  to  the  pressure  of  a  tumour  on  the  spinal 
cord.  Some  of  its  aphorisms  are  not  devoid  of  amusing 
significance :  "  Any  disease,  provided  the  bowels  remain 
open ;  any  kind  of  pain,  provided  the  heart  remain  un- 
affected ;  any  kind  of  uneasiness,  provided  the  head  be  not 
attacked ;  all  manner  of  evils,  except  it  be  a  bad  woman." 
At  first,  after  the  fall  of  the  Alexandrian  school,  it  was 
all  that  the  Jewish  physicians  could  do  to  preserve  the 
learning  that  had  descended  to  them.  But  when  the 
tumult  of  Arabic  conquest  was  over,  wo  find  Thc  ^rabg 
them  becoming  the  advisers  of  crowned  heads,  affiliate  with 
and  exerting,  by  reason  of  their  advantageous 
position,  their  liberal  education,  their  enlarged  views,  a 
most  important  influence  on  the  intellectual  progress  of 
humanity.  Maser  Djaivah,  physician  to  the  Khalif  Moa- 
wiyah,  was  distinguished  at  once  as  a  poet,  a  Riseofje^gi, 
critic,  a  philosopher ;  Haroun,  a  physician  of  physicians  to 
Alexandria,  whose  Pandects,  a  treatise  unfor-  " 
tunately  now  lost,  are  said  to  have  contained  the  first 
elaborate  description  of  the  small-pox  and  method  of  its 
treatment.  Isaac  Ben  Emran  wrote  an  original  treatise  on 


102  DIGRESSION   ON   THE   PASSAGE   OF  [CH.  XIII. 

poisons  and  their  symptoms,  and  others  followed  his  ex- 
ample. The  Khalif  Al  Kaschid,  who  maintained  political 
relations  with  Charlemagne  by  means  of  Jewish  envoys, 
set  that  monarch  an  example  by  which  indeed  he  was  not 
They  found  sl°w  to  profit,  in  actively  patronising  the  medical 
nWicai  college  at  Djondesabour,  and  founding  a  univer- 
J  eges>  sity  at  Bagdad.  He  prohibited  any  person  from 
practising  medicine  until  after  a  satisfactory  examination 
before  one  of  those  faculties.  In  the  East  the  theological 
theory  of  disease  and  of  its  cure  was  fast  passing  away. 
Of  the  school  at  Bagdad,  Joshua  ben  Nun  is  said  to  have 
been  the  most  celebrated  professor,  the  school  itself  actively 
promoting  the  translation  of  Greek  works  into  Arabic — 
not  alone  works  of  a  professional,  but  also  those  of  a  general 
kind.  In  this  manner  the  writings  of  Plato  and  Aristotle 
and  promote  were  secured ;  indeed,  it  is  said  that  almost  every 
Kienceand  day  camels  laden  with  volumes  were  entering 

the  gates  of  Bagdad.  To  add  to  the  supply,  the 
Emperor  Michael  III.  was  compelled  by  treaty  to  furnish 
Greek  books.  The  result  of  this  intellectual  movement 
could  be  no  other  than  a  diffusion  of  light.  Schools  arose 
in  Bassora,  Ispahan,  Samarcand,  Fez,  Morocco,  Sicily, 
Cordova,  Seville,  Granada. 

Through  the  Nestorians  and  the  Jews  the  Arabs  thus 
became  acquainted  with  the  medical  science  of  Greece  and 
Alexandria ;  but  to  this  was  added  other  knowledge  of  a 
intermingling  more  sinister  kind,  derived  from  Persia,  or 
of  magic  and  perhaps  remotely  from  Chaldee  sources,  the 

Nestorians  having  important  Church  establish- 
ments in  Mesopotamia,  and  the  Jews  having  been  long 
familiar  with  that  country ;  indeed,  from  thence  their 
ancestors  originally  came.  More  than  once  its  ideas  had 
modified  their  national  religion.  This  extraneous  know- 
ledge was  of  an  astrological  or  magical  nature,  carried 
into  practice  by  incantations,  amulets,  charms,  and  talis- 
Dedication  of  mans.  Its  fundamental  principle  was  that  the 
portions  of  planetary  bodies  exercise  an  influence  over 

mutter  and  ,    . *  ,    ,  •,  .  A  ,  , 

time  to  the  terrestrial  things.  As  seven  planets  and  seven 
supernatural.  metals  were  at  that  time  known — the  sun,  the 
moon,  Mars,  Mercury,  Jupiter,  Venus,  Saturn,  being  the 
planets  of  astrology— a  duo  allotment  was  made.  Gold 


CH.  XIII.J     THE   ARABIANS   TO   THEIR   AGE  OP  REASON.  403 

was  held  sacred  to  the  sun,  silver  to  the  moon,  iron  to 
Mars,  etc.  Even  the  portions  of  time  were  in  like  manner 
dedicated ;  the  seven  days  of  the  week  were  respectively 
given  to  the  seven  planets  of  astrology.  The  names 
imposed  on  those  days,  and  the  order  in  which  they  occur, 
are  obviously  connected  with  the  Ptolemaic  hypothesis 
of  astronomy,  each  of  the  planets  having  an  hour  as- 
signed to  it  in  its  order  of  occurrence,  and  the  planet 
ruling  first  the  hour  of  each  day  giving  its  origin  of  the 
name  to  that  day.  Thus  arranged,  the  week  weck- 
is  a  remarkable  instance  of  the  longevity  of  an  institution 
adapted  to  the  wants  of  man.  It  has  survived  through 
many  changes  of  empire,  has  forced  itself  on  the  eccle- 
siastical system  of  Europe,  which,  unable  to  change  its 
idolatrous  aspect,  has  encouraged  the  vulgar  error  that  it 
owes  its  authenticity  to  the  Holy  Scriptures,  an  error  too 
plainly  betrayed  by  the  pagan  names  that  the  days  bear, 
and  also  by  their  order  of  occurrence. 

These  notions  of  dedicating  portions  of  matter  or  of  time 
to  the  supernatural  were  derived  from  the  doctrine  of  a 
universal  spirit  or  soul  of  the  world,  extensively  believed 
in  throughout  the  East.  It  underlies,  as  we  have  seen  in 
Chapter  III.,  all  Oriental  theology,  and  is  at  once  a  very 
antique  and  not  unphilosophical  conception.  Of  this  soul 
the  spirit  of  man  was  by  many  supposed  to  be  a  particle 
like  a  spark  given  off  from  a  flame.  All  other  things, 
animate  or  inanimate,  brutes,  plants,  stones,  nay,  even 
natural  forms,  rivers,  mountains,  cascades,  grottoes,  have 
each  an  indwelling  and  animating  spirit. 

Amulets  and  charms,  therefore,  did  not  derive  their 
powers  from  the  material  substance  of  which  they  consisted, 
but  from  this  indwelling  spirit.  In  the  case  of  man,  his 
immaterial  principle  was  believed  to  correspond  to  his 
personal  bodily  form.  Of  the  two  great  sects  into  which 
the  Jewish  nation  had  been  divided,  the  Pharisees  accepted 
the  Assyrian  doctrine ;  .but  the  Sadducees,  who  denied  the 
existence  of  any  such  spirit,  boasted  that  theirs  was  the  old 
Mosaic  faith,  and  denounced  their  antagonists  as  having 
been  contaminated  at  the  time  of  the  Babylonian  captivity, 
before  which  catastrophe,  according  to  them,  these  doctrines 
were  unheard  of  in  Jerusalem.  In  Alexandria,  among  the 


404  DIGRESSION   ON   THE  PASSAGE   OF  [CH.  XIII. 

leading  men  there  were  many  adherents  to  these  opinions. 
Alexandrian  Thus  Plotinus  wrote  a  book  on  the  association 
necromancy.  of  demons  with  men,  and  his  disciple  Porphyry 
proved  practically  the  possibility  of  such  an  alliance ; 
for,  repairing  to  the  temple  of  Isis  along  with  Plotinus 
and  a  certain  Egyptian  priest,  the  latter,  to  prove 
his  supernatural  power,  offered  to  raise  up  the  spirit  of 
Plotinus  himself  in  a  visible  form.  A  magical  circle  was 
drawn  on  the  ground,  surrounded  with  the  customary 
astrological  signs,  the  invocation  commenced,  the  spirit 
appeared,  and  Plotinus  stood  face  to  face  with  his  own  soul. 
In  this  successful  experiment  it  is  needless  to  inquire  how 
much  the  necromancer  depended  upon  optical  contrivances, 
and  how  much  upon  an  alarmed  imagination.  But  if  thus 
the  spirit  of  a  living  man  could  be  called  up,  how  much 
more  likely  the  souls  of  the  dead. 

In  reality,  these  wild  doctrines  were  connected  with 
TVsc  jdea3  1  'antheism,  which  was  secretly  believed  in  every - 
originate  in  where ;  for,  though,  in  a  coarse  mode  of  expres- 
sion, a  distinction  seemed  thus  to  be  made 
between  matter  and  spirit,  or  body  and  soul,  it  was  held 
by  the  initiated  that  matter  itself  is  a  mere  shadow  of  the 
spirit,  and  the  body  a  delusive  semblance  of  the  soul. 

In  the  eighth  century,  many  natural  facts  of  a  surprising 

and  unaccountable  description,  well  calculated  to  make  a 

.    profound  impression  upon  those  who  witnessed 

The  black  art.    f  ,     _,  .*     ml  , 

them,  had  accumulated.  They  were  such  as  are 
now  familiar  to  chemists.  Vessels  tightly  closed  were 
burst  open  when  tormented  in  the  fire,  apparently  by  some 
invisible  agency ;  intangible  vapours  condensed  into  solids ; 
from  colourless  liquids  gaudy  precipitates  were  suddenly 
called  into  existence ;  flames  were  disengaged  without  any 
adequate  cause ;  explosions  took  place  spontaneously.  So 
nmch  that  was  unexpected  and  unaccountable  justified 
the  title  of  "  the  occult  science,"  "  the  black  art."  From 
being  isolated  marvels  unconnected  with  one  another,  these 
facts  had  been  united.  The  Chaldee  notions  of  a  soul  of 
the  world,  and  of  indwelling  spirits,  had  furnished  a  thread 
on  which  all  these  pearls,  for  such  they  proved  to  be,  might 
be  strung. 

With  avidity — for  there  is  ever  a  charm  in  the  super- 


CH.  XIII.]     THE    ARABIANS   TO   THEIR    AGE   OF   REASON.  405 

natural  -  did  the  Arabs  receive  from  their  Kestorian  and 
Jewish  medical  instructors  these  mystical  inter-  T, 

J  The  Arabians 

pretutions  along  with  true  knowledge.  And  far  fail  into  these 
from  resting  satisfied  with  what  their  masters  df  ons> 
had  thus  delivered,  they  proceeded  forthwith  to  improve 
and  extend  it  for  themselves.  They  submitted  all  kinds 
of  substances  to  all  kinds  of  operations,  greatly  improving 
the  experimental  process  they  had  been  taught.  By 
exposing  various  bodies  to  the  fire,  they  found  it  possible 
to  extract  from  them  more  refined  portions,  which  seemed 
to  concentrate  in  themselves  the  qualities  pertaining  in  a 
more  diffuse  way  to  the  substances  from  which  they  had 
been  drawn.  These,  since  they  were  often  invisible  at 
their  first  disengagement,  yet  capable  of  bursting  open  the 
strongest  vessels,  and  sometimes  of  disappearing  in  explo- 
sions and  flames,  they  concluded  must  be  the  indwelling 
spirit  or  soul  of  the  body,  from  which  the  fire  had  driven 
them  forth.  It  was  the  Chaldee  doctrine  realized.  Thus 
they  obtained  the  spirit  of  wine,  the  spirit  of  salt,  the  spirit 
of  nitre.  We  still  retain  in  commerce  these  designations, 
though  their  significance  is  lost.  When  first  introduced 
they  had  a  strictly  literal  meaning.  Alchemy,  with  its 
essences,  quintessences,  and  spirits,  was  Pantheism  mate- 
rialized. God  was  seen  to  be  in  everything,  in  the 
abstract  as  well  as  the  concrete,  in  numbers  as  well  as 
realities. 

Anticipating  what  will  have  hereafter  to  be  considered 
in  detail,  I  may  here  remark  that  it  was  not  the  Moham- 
medan alone  who  delivered  himself  up  to  these  mystic 
delusions;  Christendom  was  prepared  for  them  and theChrts- 
also.  In  its  opinion,  the  earth,  the  air,  the  sea,  lians  also- 
were  full  of  invisible  forms.  With  more  faith  than  even 
by  paganism  itself  was  the  supernatural  power  of  the  images 
of  the  gods  accepted,  only  it  was  imputed  to  the  influence  of 
devils.  The  lunatic  was  troubled  by  a  like  possession.  If 
a  spring  discharged  its  waters  with  a  periodical  gushing 
of  carbonic  acid  gas,  it  was  agitated  by  an  angel ;  if  an 
unfortunate  descended  into  a  pit  and  was  suffocated  by  the 
mephitic  air,  it  was  by  some  daemon  who  was  secreted ;  if 
the  miner's  torch  produced  an  explosion,  it  was  owing  to 
the  wrath  of  some  malignant  spirit  guarding  a  treasure, 


406  DIGRESSION  ON  THE  PASSAGE   OF  [(3H.  XIII. 

and  whose  solitude  had  been  disturbed.  There  was  no  end 
to  the  stories,  duly  authenticated  by  the  best  human 
testimony,  of  the  occasional  appearance  of  such  spirits 
under  visible  forms ;  there  was  no  grotto  or  cool  thicket  in 
which  angels  and  genii  had  not  been  seen,  no  cavern  without 
its  daemons.  Though  the  names  were  not  yet  given,  it  was 
well  understood  that  the  air  had  its  sylphs,  the  earth  its 
gnomes,  the  fire  its  salamanders,  the  water  its  undines ;  to 
the  day  belonged  its  apparitions,  to  the  night  its  fairies. 
The  foul  air  of  stagnant  places  assumed  the  visible  form 
of  daemons  of  abominable  aspect ;  tha  explosive  gases  of 
mines  took  on  the  shape  of  pale-faced,  malicious  dwarfs, 
with  leathery  ears  hanging  down  to  their  shoulders,  and 
garments  of  grey  cloth.  Philosophical  conceptions  can 
never  be  disentangled  from  social  ideas  ;  the  thoughts  of 
man  will  always  gather  a  tincture  from  the  intellectual 
^medium  in  which  he  lives. 

In  Christendom,  however,  the  chief  application  of  these 
doctrines  was  to  the  relics  of  martyrs  and  saints.  As  with 
the  amulets  and  talismans  of  Mesopotamia,  these  wcro 
regarded  as  possessing  supernatural  powers.  They  were  a 
sure  safeguard  against  evil  spirits,  and  an  unfailing  relief 
in  sickness. 

A  singular  force  was  given  to  these  mystic  ideas  by  the 
peculiar  direction  they  happened  to  take.  As  there  aro 
veins  of  water  in  the  earth,  and  apertures  through  which 
the  air  can  gain  access,  an  analogy  was  inferred  between 
its  structure  and  that  of  an  animal,  leading  to  an  inference 
of  a  similarity  of  functions.  From  this  came  the  theory  of 
Transmnta-  ^e  development  of  metals  in  its  womb  under 
tion  of  metals  the  influence  of  the  planets,  the  pregnant  earth 
my-  spontaneously  producing  gold  and  silver  from 
baser  things  after  a  definite  number  of  lunations.  Already, 
however,  in  the  doctrine  of  the  transmutation  of  metals,  it 
was  perceived  that  to  Nature  the  lapse  of  time  is  nothing — 
to  man  it  is  everything.  To  Nature,  when  she  is  transmut- 
ing a  worthless  into  a  better  metal,  what  signify  a  thousand 
years?  To  man,  half  a  century  embraces  the  period  of  his 
intellectual  activity.  The  aim  of  the  cultivator  of  the  sacred 
art  should  be  to  shorten  the  natural  term ;  and,  since  wo 
observe  the  influence  of  heat  in  hastening  the  ripening  of 


CH.  XIII.]     THE   ARABIANS   TO   THEIR   AGE  OF  REASON,  407 

fruits,  may  we  not  reasonably  expect  that  duly  regulated 
degrees  of  fire  will  answer  the  purpose  ?  by  an  exposure  of 
base  material  in  the  furnace  for  a  proper  season,  may  we  not 
anticipate  the  wished  fur  event  ?  The  Emperor  Caligula, 
who  had  formerly  tried  to  make  gold  from  philosopher's 
orpiment  by  the  force  of  fire,  was  only  one  of  a  8tone- 
thousand  adepts  pursuing  a  similar  scheme.  Some  trusted 
to  the  addition  of  a  material  substance  in  aiding  the  fire 
to  purge  away  the  dross  of  the  base  body  submitted  to  it. 
From  this  arose  the  doctrine  of  the  powder  of  projection 
and  the  philosopher's  stone. 

This  doctrine  of  the  possibility  of  transmuting  things 
into  forms  essentially  different   steadily  made   its  way, 
leading,  in  the  material  direction,  to  alchemy, 
the  art  of  making  gold  and  silver  out  of  baser  tkmand1 
metals,   and  in  theology  to  transubstantiation.  UjJgJJjJ"'*1*' 
Transmutation  and  transubstantiation  were  twin 
sisters,  destined  for  a  world-wide  celebrity ;  one  became 
allied  to  the  science  of  Mecca,  the  other  to  the  theology  of 
i  Rome. 

While  thus  the  Arabs  joined  in  the  pursuit  of  alchemy, 
their  medical  tendencies  led  them  simultaneously  to  culti- 
vate another  ancient  delusion,  the  discovery  of  a  The  elixir  of 
universal  panacea  or  elixir  which  could  cure  all  life- 
diseases  and  prolong  life  for  ever.  Mystical  experimenters 
for  centuries  had  been  ransacking  all  nature,  from  the 
yellow  flowers  which  are  sacred  to  the  sun,  and  gold  his 
emblem  and  representative  on  earth,  down  to  the  vilest 
excrements  of  the  human  body.  As  to  gold,  there  had  been 
gathered  round  that  metal  many  fictitious  excellences  in 
addition  to  its  real  values ;  it  was  believed  that  in  some 
preparation  of  it  would  be  found  the  elixir  vitte.  This 
is  the  explanation  of  the  unwearied  attempts  _ 

,  .    L  -,-,    f       .  .  f.       Potable  gold. 

at  making  potable  gold,  for  it  was  universally 
thought  that  if  that  metal  could  be  obtained  in  a  dissolved 
state,  it  would  constitute  the  long-sought  panacea.  Nor 
did  it  seem  impossible  so  to  increase  the  power  of  water  as 
to  impart  to  it  new  virtues,  and  thereby  enable  it  to  accom- 
plish the  desired  solution.  Were  there  not  natural  waters 
of  very  different  properties  ?  were  there  not  some  that  could 
fortify  the  memory,  others  destroy  it ;  some  re-enforce  the 


408  DIGRESSION   ON   THE  PASSAGE  OF  [CH.  XIII. 

spirits,  some  impart  dulness,  and  some,  which  were  highly 
prized,  that  could  secure  a  return  of  love  ?  It  had  been 
long  known  that  both  natural  'and  artificial  waters  can 
permanently  affect  the  health,  and  that  instruments  may 
be  made  to  ascertain  their  qualities.  Zosimus,  the  Pan- 
opolitan,  had  described  in  former  times  the  operation  of 
distillation,  by  which  water  may  be  purified ;  the  Arabs 
chemical  called  the  apparatus  for  conducting  that  experi- 
waters.  ment  an  alembic.  His  treatise  ou  the  virtues 
and  composition  of  waters  was  conveyed  under  the  form  of 
a  dream,  in  which  there  flit  before  us  fantastically  white- 
haired  priests  sacrificing  before  the  altar ;  cauldrons  of 
boiling  water,  in  which  there  are  walking  about  men  a  span 
long ;  brazen-clad  warriors  in  silence  reading  leaden  books, 
and  sphinxes  with  wings.  In  such  incomprehensible 
fictions  knowledge  was  purposely,  and  ignorance  con- 
veniently concealed. 

The  practical  Arabs  had  not  long  been  engaged  in  these 
fascinating  but  wild  pursuits,  when  results  of 
very  great  importance  began  to  appear.  In  a 
scientific  point  of  view,  1  he  discovery  of  the  strong 

chemistry.  .  ,     ,    .  -,1,,  -,          -,    , .  *    v        »_i  • 

acids  laid  the  true  foundation  of  chemistry  ;  in  a 
political  point  of  view,  the  invention  of  gunpowder  revo- 
lutionized the  world. 

There  were  several  explosive  mixtures.  Automatic  fire 
Gunpowd-r  was  ma(le  from  equal  parts  of  sulphur,  saltpetre, 
and  tire-  and  sulphide  of  antimony,  finely  pulverized  and 
mixed  into  a  paste,  with  equal  parts  of  juice  of 
the  black  sycamore  and  liquid  asphaltum,  a  little  quick- 
lime being  added.  It  was  directed  to  keep  the  material 
from  the  rays  of  the  sun,  which  would  set  it  on  fire. 

Of  liquid  or  Greek  fire  we  have  not  a  precise  description, 
since  the  knowledge  of  it  was  kept  at  Constantinople  as  a 
state  secret.  There  is  reason,  however,  to  believe  that  it  con- 
tained sulphur  and  nitrate  of  potash  mixed  with  naphtha. 
Of  gunpowder,  Marcus  Grrecus,  whose  date  is  probably 
to  be  referred  to  the  close  of  the  eighth  century,  gives  the 
composition  explicitly.  He  directs  us  to  pulverize  in  a 
marble  mortar  one  pound  of  sulphur,  two  of  charcoal,  and 
six  of  saltpetre.  If  some  of  this  powder  be  tightly  rammed 
in  a  long  narrow  tube  closed  at  one  end,  and  then  set  on 


CH.  XIII.J     THE  ARABIANS   TO  THEIR   AGE  OF   REASON.  409 

fire,  the  tube  will  fly  through,  the  air  :  this  is  clearly  the 
rocket.  He  says  that  thunder  may  be  imitated  by  folding 
some  of  the  powder  in  a  cover  and  tying  it  up  tightly  : 
this  is  the  cracker.  It  thus  appears  that  fireworks  pre- 
ceded fire-arms.  To  the  same  author  we  are  incombus- 
indebted  for  prescriptions  for  making  the  skin  tiblemen- 
incombustible,  so  that  we  may  handle  fire  without  being 
burnt.  These,  doubtless,  were  received  as  explanations 
of  the  legends  of  the  times,  which  related  how  miracle- 
workers  had  washed  their  hands  in  melted 'copper,  and 
eat  at  their  ease  in  flaming  straw. 

Among  the  Saracen  names  that  might  be  mentioned  as 
cultivators  of  alchemy,  we  may  recall  El-Easi,  Arabian 
Ebid   Durr,   Djafar  or  Geber,  Toghrage,  who  cbemists. 
wrote  an  alchemical  poem,  and  Dschildegi,  one  of  whose 
works  bears  the  significant  title  of  "  The  Lantern."     The 
definition  of  alchemy  by  some  of  these  authors  is  very 
striking :  the  science  of  the  balance,  the  science  of  weight, 
the  science  of  combustion. 

To  one  of  these  chemists,  Djafar,  our  attention  may  for 
a  moment  be  drawn.     He  lived  toward  the  end 
of  the  eighth  century,  and  is  honoured  by  Khases,  covers  nurfc 
Avicenna,  and   Kalid,   the  great   Arabio  phy-  add  and  aqua 
sicians,  as  their  master.     His  name  is  memorable 
in  chemistry,  since  it  marks  an  epoch  in  that  science  of 
equal  importance  to  that  of  Priestley  and  Lavoisier.     He  is 
the  first  to  describe  nitric  acid  and  aqua  regia.     Before 
him  no  stronger  acid  was  known  than  concentrated  vinegar. 
We  cannot  conceive  of  chemistry  as  not  possessing  acids. 
Eoger  Bacon  speaks  of  him  as  the  magister  magistrorum. 
He  has  perfectly  just  notions  of  the  nature  of  spirits  or 
gases,  as  we  call  them  ;  thus  he  says,  "  0  son  of  the  doctrine, 
when  spirits  fix  themselves  in  bodies,  they  lose 
their  form ;  in  their  nature  they  are  no  longer  oxidation 
what  they  were.     When  you  compel  them  to  inc.rease3 
be   disengaged   again,   this    is   what   happens :  W 
either   the   spirit  alone    escapes  with   the  air,   and  the 
body   remains    fixed   in  the  alembic,   or  the   spirit   and 
body  escape  together  at  the  same  time."     His  doctrine 
respecting  the  nature  of  the  metals,  though  erroneous,  was 
not  without  a  scientific  value.     A  metal  he  considers  to 

VOL.  I — 19 


410  DIGRESSION   ON   THE   PASSAGE   OF  [CH.  XII I. 

bo  a  compound  of  sulphur,  mercury,  and  arsenic,  and 
hence  he  infers  that  transmutation  is  possible  by  varying 
the  proportion  of  those  ingredients.  He  knows  that  a 
metal,  when  calcined,  increases  in  weight,  a  discovery  of 
the  greatest  importance,  as  eventually  brought  to  bear  in 
the  destruction  of  the  doctrine  of  Phlogiston  of  Stalil,  and 
which  has  been  imputed  to  Europeans  of  a  much  later 
time.  He  describes  the  operations  of  distillation,  subli- 
mation, filtration,  various  chemical  apparatus,  water- 
baths,  sand-baths,  cupels  of  bone-earth,  of  the  use  of  which 
he  gives  a  singularly  clear  description.  A  chemist  reads 
with  interest  Djafar's  antique  method  of  obtaining  nitric 
acid  by  distilling  in  a  retort  Cyprus  vitriol,  alum,  and 
HO  =oive*  the  saltpetre.  He  sets  forth  its  corrosive  power,  and 
probinn  of  shows  how  it  may  be  made  to  dissolve  even 
powUe  gold.  g0j^  jtgeif^  by  adding  a  portion  of  sal  ammoniac. 
Djafar  may  thus  be  considered  as  having  solved  the  grand 
alchemical  problem  of  obtaining  gold  in  a  potable  state. 
Of  course,  many  trials  must  have  been  made  on  the  in- 
fluence of  this  solution  on  the  animal  system,  respecting 
which  such  extravagant  anticipations  had  been  entertained. 
The  disappointment  that  ensued  was  doubtless  the  reason 
that  the  records  of  these  trials  have  not  descended  to  us. 

With  Djafar  may  be  mentioned  Ehazes,  born  A.D.  860, 
Khazes  du-  physician-in-chief  to  the  great  hospital  at  Bag- 
covers  sui-  dad.  To  him  is  due  the  first  description  of  the 
phurxccid.  preparation  and  properties  of  sulphuric  acid. 
He  obtained  it,  as  the  Xordhausen  variety  is  still  made,  by 
the  distillation  of  dried  green  vitriol.  To  him  are  also 
due  the  first  indications  of  the  preparation  of  absolute 
alcohol,  by  distilling  spirit  of  wine  from  quick- lime.  As 
Bechii  dis-  a  curi°us  discovery  made  by  the  Saracens  may 
covers  phos-  be  mentioned  the  experiment  of  Achild  Bechii, 
phoniB.  who,  by  distilling  together  the  extract  of  urine, 
clay,  lime,  and  powdered  charcoal,  obtained  an  artificial 
carbuncle,  which  shone  in  the  dark  "  like  a  good  moon." 
This  was  phosphorus. 

And  now  there  arose  among  Arabian  physicians  a 
correctness  of  thought  and  breadth  of  view  altogether 
surprising.  It  might  almost  be  supposed  that  the  follow- 
ing lines  were  written  by  one  of  our  own  contemporaries  ; 


CH.  XIII.]     THE  ARABIANS  TO  THEIR  AGE  OP  REASON.  411 

they  are,  however,  extracted  from  a  chapter  of  Avicenna 
on  the  origin  of  mountains.     This  author  was  Geoiogical 
born  in  the  tenth  century.     "  Mountains  may  views  if 
be  due  to  two  different  causes.     Either  they  are  Avic 
effects  of  upheavals  of  the  crust  of  the  earth,  such  as 
might  occur  during  a  violent  earthquake,  or  they  are  the 
effect  of  water,  which,  cutting  for  itself  a  new  route,  has 
denuded  the  valleys,  the  strata  being  of  different  kinds, 
some  soft,  some  hard.     The  winds  and  waters  disintegrate 
the  one,  but  leave  the  other  intact.     Most  of  the  eminences 
of  the  earth  have  had  this  latter  origin.     It  would  require 
a  long  period  of  time  for  all  such  changes  to  be  accom- 
plished, during  which  the  mountains  themselves  might  be 
somewhat  diminished  in  size.     But  that  water  has  been 
the  main  cause  of  these  effects  is  proved  by  the  existence 
of  fossil  remains  of  aquatic  and  other  animals  on  many 
mountains."     Avicenna  also  explains  the  nature  of  petrify- 
ing or  incrusting  waters,  and  mentions  aerolites,  out  of 
one  of  which  a  sword-blade  was  made,  but  he  adds  that 
the  metal  was  too  brittle  to  be  of  any  use.     A  mere  cata- 
logue of  some  of  the  works  of  Avicenna  will  indicate  the 
condition  of  Arabian  attainment.     1.  On    the 
Utility  and  Advantage  of  Science  ;  2.  Of  Health  indicate  the 
and    Remedies ;  3.  Canons    of    Physic ;  4.    On  t"ea[?™eesnt  of 
Astronomical    Observations;    5.    Mathematical 
Theorems  ;  6.  On  the  Arabic  Language  and  its  Properties  ; 
7.  On  the   Origin  of  the   Soul  and   Kcsurrection  of  the 
Body ;    8.    Demonstration    of    Collateral    Lines    on    the 
Sphere ;  9.  An   Abridgment  of  Euclid  ;    10.   On  Finity 
and  Infinity;  11.  On  Physics  and  Metaphysics;  12.  An 
Encyclopaedia  of  Human  Knowledge,  in  20  vols.,  etc.,  etc. 
The  perusal  of  such  a  catalogue  is  sufficient  to  excite 
piofound   attention   when   we  remember  the  contempo 
raneous  state  of  Europe. 

The  pursuit  of  the  elixir  made  a  well-marked  impres- 
sion upon  Arab  experimental  science,  confirm-  Effect  of  the 
ing  it  in  its  medical  application.     At  the  founda-  search  for  the 
tion  of  this  application  lay  the  principle  that  pr'acUcai 
it  is  possible  to  relieve  the  diseases  of  the  human  mcdicine- 
body  by  purely  material  means.     As  the  science  advanced 
it  gradually  shook  off  its  fetichisms,  the  spiritual  receding 


412  THE   ARABIAN   TRANSITIONAL   EPOCH.  [CH.  XIII 

into  insignificance,  the  material  coming  into  bolder  relief. 
Not,  however,  without  great  difficulty  was  a  way  forced 
for  the  great  doctrine  that  the  influence  of  substances  on 
the  constitution  of  man  is  altogether  of  a  material  kind, 
and  not  at  all  due  to  any  indwelling  or  animating  spirit ; 
that  it  is  of  no  kind  of  use  to  practise  incantations  over 
drugs,  or  to  repeat  prayers  over  the  mortar  in  which 
medicines  are  being  compounded,  since  the  effect  will  be 
the  same,  whether  this  has  been  done  or  not ;  that  there 
is  no  kind  of  efficacy  in  amulets,  no  virtue  in  charms ;  and 
that,  though  saint- relics  may  serve  to  excite  the  imagina- 
tion of  the  ignorant,  they  are  altogether  beneath  the 
attention  of  the  philosopher. 

It  was  this  last  sentiment  which  brought  Europe  and 
Africa  into  intellectual  collision.  The  Saracen 
flict  ix*tw?"n  and  Hebrew  physicians  had  become  thoroughly 
AfricTand  materialized.  Throughout  Christendom  the 
practice  of  medicine  was  altogether  supernatural. 
It  was  in  the  hands  of  ecclesiastics;  and  saint  relics, 
shrines,  and  miracle-cures  were  a  source  of  boundless 
profit.  On  a  subsequent  page  I  shall  have  to  describe  the 
circumstances  of  the  conflict  that  ensued  between  material 
philosophy  on  one  side,  and  supernatural  jugglery  on  the 
other ;  to  show  how  the  Arab  system  gained  the  victory, 
and  how,  out  of  that  victory,  the  industrial  life  of  Europe 
arose.  The  Byzantine  policy  inaugurated  in  Constan- 
tinople and  Alexandria  was,  happily  for  the  world,  in  the 
end  overthrown.  To  that  future  page  I  must  postpone 
the  great  achievements  of  the  Arabians  in  the  fulness  of 
their  Age  of  Keason.  When  Europe  was  hardly  more 
enlightened  than  Caffraria  is  now,  the  Saracens  were 
cultivating  and  even  creating  science.  Their  triumphs  in 
philosophy,  mathematics,  astronomy,  chemistry,  medicine, 
proved  to  be  more  glorious,  more  durable,  and  therefore 
more  important  than  their  military  actions  had  been. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

THE  AGE  OF  FAITH  IN  THE  WEST— (Continued). 

IMAGE-WORSHIP   AND  THE  MONKS. 

Origin  of  IMAGE-WORSHIP. — Inutility  of  Images  discovered  in  Asia  and 
Africa  during  the  Saracen  Wars. — Rise  of  Iconoclasm. 

The  Emperors  prohibit  Image-worship. — The  Monks,  aided  by  court 
Females,  sustain  it. —  Victory  of  the  latter. 

Image-worship  in  the  West  sustained  by  the  Popes. — Quarrel  between  the 
Emperor  and  the  Pope. — The  Pope,  aided  by  the  Monks,  revolts  and 
allies  himself  with  the  Franks. 

THE  MONKS. — History  of  the  Rise  and  Development  of  Monasticism. — 
Hermits  and  Coenobites. — Spread  of  Monasticism  from  Egypt  over 
Europe. — Monk  Miracles  and  Legends. — Uumanization  of  the  monastic 
Establishments. — They  materialize  Religion,  and  impress  their  Ideas 
on  Europe. 

THE  Arabian  influence,  allying  itself  to  philosophy,  was 
henceforth  productive  of  other  than  military  resul  ts.  To 
the  loss  of  Africa  and  Asia  was  now  added  a  disturbance 
impressed  on  Europe  itself,  ending  in  thedecom-  influence  of 
position  of  Christianity  into  two  forms,  Greek  the  Arabians, 
and  Latin,  and  in  three  great  political  events — the  eman- 
cipation of  the  popes  from  the  emperors  of  Constantinople, 
the  usurpation  of  power  by  a  new  dynasty  in  France,  the 
reconstruction  of  the  Komaii  empire  in  the  West. 

The  dispute  respecting  the  worship  of  images  led  to 
those  great  events.  The  acts  of  the  Mohammedan  khalifs 
and  of  the  iconoclastic  or  image-breaking  emperors  occa- 
sioned that  dispute. 

Nothing  could  be  more  deplorable  than  the  condition  of 
southern  Europe  when  it  first  felt  the  intellectual  influence 
of  the  Arabians.  Its  old  Roman  and  Greek  populations 


414  THE  AGE  OF  FAITH  IN  THE  WEST.  [CH.  XIV. 

had  altogether  disappeared;  the  races  of  half-breeds  and 
Worship  of  mongrels  substituted  for  them  were  immersed 
relics  and  in  fetichism.  An  observance  of  certain  cere- 
monials constituted  a  religious  life.  A  chip  of 
the  true  cross,  some  iron  filings  from  the  chain  of  St.  Peter, 
a  tooth  or  bone  of  a  martyr,  were  held  in  adoration ;  tho 
world  was  full  of  the  stupendous  miracles  which  these 
relics  had  performed.  But  especially  were  painted  or 
graven  images  of  holy  personages  supposed  to  be  endowed 
with  such  powers.  They  had  become  objects  of  actual 
worship.  The  facility  with  which  the  Empress  Helena, 
the  mother  of  Constantine  the  Great,  had  given  an  aristo- 
cratic fashion  to  this  idolatry,  showed  that  the  old  pagan 
ideas  had  never  really  died  out,  and  that  the  degenerated 
populations  received  with  approval  the  religious  concep- 
tions of  their  great  predecessors.  The  early  Christian 
fathers  believed  that  painting  and  sculpture  wei  e  forbidden 
by  the  Scriptures,  and  that  they  were  therefore  wicked 
arts  ;  and,  though  the  second  Council  of  Nicea  asserted 
that  the  use  of  images  had  always  been  adopted  by  tho 
Church,  there  are  abundant  facts  to  prove  that  the  actual 
worship  of  them  was  not  indulged  in  until  the  fourth 
century,  when,  on  the  occasion  of  its  occurrence  in  Spain, 
it  was  condemned  by  the  Council  of  Illiberis.  During 
tho  fifth  century  the  practice  of  introducing  images  into 
churches  increased,  and  in  the  sixth  it  had  become  prevalent, 
its  rapid  The  common  people,  who  had  never  been  able 
spread  in  to  comprehend  doctrinal  mysteries,  found  their 
lom'  religious  wants  satisfied  in  turning  to  these 
effigies.  With  singular  obtuseness,  they  believed  that  tho 
saint  is  present  in  his  image,  though  hundreds  of  the  same 
kind  were  in  existence,  each  having  an  equal  and  exclusive 
right  to  the  spiritual  presence.  The  doctrine  of  invoca- 
tion of  departed  saints,  which  assumed  prominence  in  tho 
fifth  century,  was  greatty  strengthened  by  these  graphic 
forms.  Pagan  idolatry  had  reappeared. 

At  first  the  simple  cross  was  used  as  a  substitute  for  tho 
amulets  and  charms  of  remoter  times  ;  it  constituted  a 
fetich  able  to  expel  evil  spirits,  even  Satan  himself.  This 
Being,  who  had  become  singularly  debased  from  what 
he  was  in  the  noble  Oriental  fictions,  was  an  imbecile 


CII.  XIV.]  THE  AGE  OF  FAITH  IX  THE  WEST.  415 

and  malicious  though  not  a  malignant  spirit,  affrighted 
not  only  at  pieces  of  wood  framed  in  the  shape  of  a  cross, 
but  at  the  form  of  it  made  by  the  finger  in  the  air.  A 
subordinate  da3mon  was  supposed  to  possess  g^p^fe. 
every  individual  at  his  birth,  but  he  was  cast  tiches  repiac- 
out  by  baptism.  When,  in  the  course  of  time,  ed  b'huu««- 
the  cross  became  a  crucifix,  offering  a  representation  of 
the  dying  Redeemer,  it  might  be  supposed  to  have  gathered 
increased  virtue ;  and  soon,  in  addition  to  that  adorable 
form,  were  introduced  images  of  the  Virgin,  the  apostles, 
saints,  and  martyrs.  The  ancient  times  seemed  to  have 
come  again,  when  these  pictures  were  approached  with 
genuflexions,  luminaries,  and  incense.  The  doctrine  of 
the  more  intelligent  was  that  these  were  aids  to  devotion, 
and  that,  among  people  to  whom  the  art  of  reading  was 
unknown,  they  served  the  useful  purpose  of  recalling 
sacred  events  in  a  kind  of  hieroglyphic  manner.  But 
among  the  vulgar,  and  monks,  and  women,  they  were- 
believed  to  be  endowed  with  supernatural  power.  B|peding  and 
Of  some,  the  wounds  could  bleed ;  of  others,  winking 
the  eyes  could  wink  ;  of  others,  the  limbs  could  lmages- 
be  raised.  In  ancient  times,  the  statues  of  Minerva  could 
brandish  spears,  and  those  of  Venus  could  weep. 

In   truth,   the   populations    of   the    Greek  and  Latin 
countries  were  no   more   than  nominally  converted  and 
superficially  Christianized.     The  old  traditions  idolatry 
and   practices   had    never    been   forgotten.     A  never  extin- 

-I  •  j    i    i  3  ±     -L.      J.-L  pushed  m 

tendency  to  idolatry  seemed  to  be  the  necessary  Greece  ana 
incident  of  the  climate.  Not  without  reason  Ital>'- 
have  the  apologists  of  the  clergy  affirmed  that  image- 
worship  was  insisted  on  by  the  people,  and  that  the 
Church  had  to  admit  ideas  that  she  had  never  been  able 
to  eradicate.  After  seven  hundred  years  of  apostolic 
labour,  it  was  found  that  the  populace  of  Greece  and  Italy 
were  apparently  in  their  old  state,  and  that  actually 
nothing  at  all  had  been  accomplished;  the  new-comers 
had  passed  into  the  track  of  their  predecessors.  It  is 
often  said  that  the  restoration  of  image-worship  was 
owing  to  the  extinction  of  civilization  by  the  Northern 
barbarians.  But  this  is  not  true.  In  the  blood  of  the 
German  nations  the  taint  of  idolatry  is  but  small.  In 


416  THE  A(JE  OF  FAITH  IN  THE  WEST.  [CK.  XIV, 

their  own  countries  they  gave  it  little  encouragement, 
and,  indeed,  hastened  quickly  to  its  total  rejection.  The 
sin  lay  not  with  them,  but  with  the  Mediterranean 
people. 

Is  or  are  those  barbarians  to  be  held  accountable  for  the 
so-called  extinction  of  civilization  in  Italy.  The  truo 
Roman  race  had  prematurely  died ;  it  came  to  an  untimely 
influence  of  en<^  *n  consequence  of  its  dissolute,  its  violent  life, 
the  bar-  Its  civilization  would  have  spontaneously  died 
with  it  had  no  barbarian  been  present ;  and,  if 
these  intruders  produced  a  baneful  effect  at  first,  they 
compensated  for  it  in  the  end.  As,  when  fresh  coal  is 
added  to  a  fire  that  is  burning  low,  a  still  further  diminu- 
tion will  ensue,  perhaps  there  may  be  a  risk  of  entirely 
putting  it  out ;  but  in  due  season,  if  all  goes  well,  the  new 
material  will  join  in  the  contagious  blaze.  The  savages 
of  Europe,  thrown  into  the  decaying  foci  of  Greek  and- 
Eoman  light,  did  perhaps  for  a  time  reduce  the  general 
heat ;  but,  by  degrees,  it  spread  throughout  their  mass, 
and  the  bright  flame  of  modern  civilization  was  the 
result.  Let  those  who  lament  the  intrusion  of  these  men 
into  the  classical  countries,  reflect  upon  the  result  which 
must  otherwise  have  ensued — the  last  spark  would  soon 
have  died  out,  and  nothing  but  ashes  have  remained. 

Three  causes  gave  rise  to  Iconoclasm,  or  the  revolt 
Origin  of  against  image-worship :  1st,  the  remonstrances 
iconociasm.  anj  derision  of  the  Mohammedans;  2nd,  the 
good  sense  of  a  great  sovereign,  Leo  the  Isaurian,  who 
had  risen  by  his  merit  from  obscurity,  and  had  become  the 
founder  of  a  new  dynasty  at  Constantinople;  3rd,  the 
detected  inability  of  these  miracle-working  idols  and 
fetiches  to  protect  their  worshippers  or  themselves  against 
an  unbelieving  enemy.  Moreover,  an  impression  was 
gradually  making  its  way  among  the  more  intelligent 
classes  that  religion  ought  to  free  itself  from  such  supersti- 
tions. So  important  were  the  consequences  of  Leo's 
actions,  that  some  have  been  disposed  to  assign  to  his  reign 
the  first  attempt  at  making  policy  depend  on  theology; 
and  to  this  period,  as  I  have  elsewhere  remarked,  they 
therefore  refer  the  commencement  of  the  Byzantine  empire. 
Through  one  hundred  and  twenty  years,  six  emperors 


CH.  XIV.]  THE   AGE   OF   FAITH   IN   THE  WEST.  417 

devoted  themselves  to  this  reformation.  But  it  was 
premature.  They  were  overpowered  by  the  populace  and 
the  monks,  by  the  bishops  of  Rome,  and  by  a  superstitious 
and  wicked  woman. 

It  had  been  a  favourite  argument  against  the  pagans 
how  little  their  gods  could  do  for  them  when  the  hour  of 
calamity  came,  when  their  statues  and  images  were  insulted 

and  destroyed,  and  hence  how  vain  was  such  T 

i  •     -U       •    -L     -i          i-      j        \*7i~       A  e  •       inntihty  of 
worship,  how  imbecile  such  gods.     When  Africa  miraculous 

and  Asia,  full  of  relics  and  crosses,  pictures  and  c™egr7ddin~the 
images,   fell   before  the   Mohammedans,   those  Arabiuva- 
conquerors  retaliated   the   same  logic  with  no  61ons' 
little  eifect.     There  was  hardly  one  of  the  fallen  towns 
that  had  not  some  idol  for  its  protector.     Remembering 
the  stern  objurgations  of  the  prophet  against  this  deadly 
sin,  prohibited  at  once  by  the  commandment  of  God  and 
repudiated  by  the  reason  of  man,  the  Saracen  khalifs  had 
ordered  all  the  Syrian  images  to  be  destroyed. 
Amid  the  derision  of  the  Arab  soldiery  and  the  and  ™ie'o? 
tears  of  the  terror-stricken  worshippers,  these  '^1^  tbe 
orders  were  remorselessly  carried  int  o  effect,  except 
in  some  cases  where  the  temptation  of  an  enormous  ransom 
induced  the  avengers  of  the  unity  of  God  to  swerve  from 
their  duty.     Thus  the  piece  of  linen  cloth  on  which  it  was 
feigned  that  our  Saviour  had  impressed  his  countenance, 
and  which  was  the  palladium  of  Edessa,  was  carried  off 
by  the  victors  at  the  capture  of  that  town,  and  subsequently 
sold  to  Constantinople  at  the  profitable  price  of  twelve 
thousand  pounds  of  silver.     This  picture,  and  also  some 
other  celebrated  ones,  it  was  said,  possessed  the  property 
of  multiplying  themselves  by  contact  with  other  surfaces, 
as  in  modern  times  we  multiply  photographs.     Such  were 
the  celebrated  images  "  made  without  hands." 

It  was  currently  asserted  that  the  immediate  origin  of 
Iconoclasm  was  due  to  the  Khalif  Yezed,  who  had  com- 
pleted the  destruction  of  the  Syrian  images,  and  to  two 
Jews,  who  stimulated  Leo  the  Isaurian  to  his  task.     How- 
ever that  may  be,  Leo  published  an  edict,  A.D.  Thv  em 
726,  prohibiting  the  worship  of  images.     This  prohibits  im- 
was   followed   by  another   directing  their   de-  a«e-worebiP- 
struction,  and  the  whitewashing  of  the  walls  of  churchea 

19* 


418  THE  AGE   OF   FAITH   IN   THE   WEST.  [CH.  XIV. 

ornamented  with  them.  Hereupon  the  clergy  and  the 
monks  rebelled ;  the  emperor  was  denounced  as  a  Moham- 
medan and  a  Jew.  He  ordered  that  a  statue  of  tho 
Saviour  in  that  part  of  the  city  called  Chalcopratia  should 
be  removed,  and  a  riot  was  the  consequence.  One  of  his 
officers  mounted  a  ladder  and  struck  tho  idol  with  an  axe 
upon  its  face ;  it  was  an  incident  like  that  enacted  cen- 
turies before  in  the  temple  of  Serapis  at  Alexandria.  The 
sacred  image,  which  had  often  arrested  tho  course  of 
Nature  and  worked  many  miracles,  was  now  found  to  be 
unable  to  protect  or  to  avenge  its  own  honour.  A  rabble 
of  women  interfered  in  its  behalf;  they  threw  down  the 
ladder  and  killed  tho  officer  ;  nor  was  the  riot  ended  until 
the  troops  were  called  in  and  a  great  massacre  perpetrated. 
The  monk-;  The  monks  spread  the  sedition  in  all  parts  of 
sustain  it.  fag  empire ;  they  even  attempted  to  proclaim  a 
new  emperor.  Leo  was  everywhere  denounced  as  a  Moham- 
medan infidel,  an  enemy  of  the  Mother  of  God  ;  but  with 
inflexible  resolution  he  persisted  in  his  determination  as 
long  as  ho  lived. 

His  son  and  successor,  Constantino,  pursued  the  same 
iconoclastic  policy.  From  the  circumstance  of  his  acci- 
dently  defiling  the  font  at  which  he  was  being  baptized, 
he  had  received  the  suggestive  name  of  Copronymus. 
His  subsequent  career  was  asserted  by  the  monks  to  havo 
been  fon  shadowed  by  his  sacrilegious  beginnings.  It  was 
Th  accuse  publicly  asserted  that  he  was  an  atheist.  In 
the  emperor  truth,  his  biography,  in  many  respects,  proves 
of  atheism.  ^^  ^ie  hjgjjgj.  classes  in  Constantinople  were 
largely  infected  with  infidelity.  The  patriarch  deposed 
upon  oath  that  Copronymus  had  made  the  most  irreligious 
confessions  to  him,  as  that  our  Saviour,  far  from  being  the 
Son  of  God,  was,  in  his  opinion,  a  mere  man,  born  of  his 
mother  in  the  common  way.  The  truth  of  these  accusa- 
tions was  perhaps,  in  a  measure,  sTistained  by  the  revenge 
that  the  emperor  took  on  the  patriarch  for  his  indiscreet 
revelations.  He  seized  him,  put  out  his  eyes,  caused  him 
to  be  led  through  the  city  mounted  on  an  ass,  with  his 
face  to  tho  tail,  and  then,  as  if  to  show  his  unutterable 
contempt  for  all  religion,  with  an  exquisite  malice,  appointed 
him  to  his  office  again. 


CH.  XIV.]  THE  AGE  OF  FAITH  IN  THE  WEST.  419 

If  such  was  the  religious  condition  of  the  emperor,  the 
higher  clergy   were   but  little   better.      A   council  was 
summoned   by  Constantino,  A.D.  754,  at   Constantinople, 
which  was  attended  by  388  bishops.     It  asserted  council  of 
for  itself  the  position  of  the  seventh  general  Constanti- 
council.     It  unanimously  decreed  that  all  visible  hiblts  Fmagc- 
symbols  of  Christ,  except  in  the  Eucharist,  are  wurshiP- 
blasphemous  or  heretical ;  that  image-worship  is  a  corrup- 
tion of  Christianity  and  a  renewed  form  of  paganism  :  it 
directed  all  statues  and  paintings  to  be  removed  from  the 
churches  and  destroyed,  it  degraded  every  ecclesiastic  and 
excommunicated  every  layman  who  should  be  concerned 
in  setting  them  up  again.     It  concluded  its  labours  with 
prayers  for  the  emperor  who  had  extirpated  idolatry  and 
given  peace  to  the  Church. 

But  this  decision  was  by  no  means  quietly  received. 
The  monks  rose  in  an  uproar;   some  raised  a  Uproar 
clamour  in  their  caves,  some  from  the  tops  of  their  among  the 
pillars;    one,   in   the  church  of  St.  Mammas,  n'°"ks- 
insulted  the  emperor  to  his  face,  denouncing  him  as  a 
second  apostate   Julian.     Nor  could  he  deliver  himself 
from  them  by  the  scourging,  strangling,  and  drowning  of 
individuals.     In  his  wrath,  Copi  onyrnus,  plainly  discern- 
ing that  it  was  the  monks  on  one  side  and  the  government 
on  the  other,  determined  to  strike  at  the  root  of  the  evil, 
and  to  destroy  monasticism  itself.     He  drove  the  The  emperor 
holy  men  out  of  their  cells  and  cloisters ;  .made  retaliates. 
the  consecrated  virgins  marry ;  gave  up  the  buildings  for 
civil  uses ;  burnt  pictures,  idols,  and  all  kinds  of  relics ; 
degraded  the  patriarch  from  his  office,  scourged  him,  shaved 
off  his  eyebrows,  set  him  for  public  derision  in  the  circus 
in  a  sleeveless  shirt,  and  then  beheaded  him.     Already  he 
had  consecrated  a  eunuch  in  his  stead.     Doubtless  these 
atrocities  strengthened  the  bishops  of  Rome  in  their  resolve 
to  seek  a  protector  from  such  a  master  among  the  bar- 
barian kings  of  the  West. 

Constantino  Copronymus  was  succeeded  by  his  son,  Leo 
the  Chazar,  who,  during  a  shoit  reign  of  five  .H 
years,  continued  the  iconoclastic  policy.    On  his  nient  of  l 

j       j-i      i  •  -f       T  •       j     j.1  j      ng«'-wors 

death  his   wife   Jrene   seized   the   government,  byirenu 
ostensibly  in  behalf  of  her  son,.     This  woman,  murdLTC 


4:20  THE   AGE   OF   FAITH   IN   THE   WEST.  [CH.  XIV. 

pre-eminently  wicked  and  superstitious  beyond  her  times, 
undertook  the  restoration  of  images.  She  caused  the 
patriarch  to  retire  from  his  dignity,  appointed  one  of  her 
creatures,  Tarasius,  in  his  stead,  and  summoned  another 
council.  In  this  second  Council  of  Nicea  that  of  Constan- 
tinople was  denounced  as  a  synod  of  fools  and  atheists,  the 
worship  of  images  was  pronounced  agreeable  to  Scripture 
and  reason,  and  in  conformity  to  the  usages  and  traditions 
of  the  Church. 

Irene,  saluted  as  the  second  Helena,  and  set  forth  by 
the  monks  as  an  exemplar  of  piety,  thus  accomplished  the 
restoration  of  image-worship.  In  a  few  years  this  ambitious 
woman,  refusing  to  surrender  his  rightful  dignity  to  her 
son,  caused  him  to  be  seized,  and,  in  the  porphyry  chamber 
in'which  she  had  borne  him,  put  out  his  eyes.  Constanti- 
nople, long  familiar  with  horrible  crimes,  was  appalled  at 
such  an  unnatural  deed. 

During  the  succeeding  reigns  to  that  of  Leo  the  Armenian, 
Resumption  matters  remained  without  change ;  but  that 
of  iconoctesm  emperor  resumed  the  policy  of  Leo  the  Isaurian. 

by  the  sue-        ,-.    *  , .    ,    ,  ,  .}.,    f  ,  ,  .  , 

ceedingem-  By  an  edict  he  prohibited  image- worship,  and 
perore.  banished  the  Patriarch  of  Constantinople,  who 

had  admonished  him  that  the  apostles  had  made  images  of 
the  Saviour  and  the  Virgin,  and  that  there  was  at  Rome  a 
picture  of  the  Transfiguration,  painted  by  order  of  St. 
Peter.  After  the  murder  of  Leo,  his  successor,  Michael 
the  Stammerer,  ^showed  no  encouragement  to  either  party. 
It  was  affirmed  that  he  was  given  to  profane  jesting,  was 
incredulous  as  to  the  resurrection  of  the  dead,  disbelieved 
the  existence  of  the  devil,  was  indifferent  whether  images 
were  worshipped  or  not,  and  recommended  the  patriarch  to 
bury  the  decrees  of  Constantinople  and  Nicea  equally  in 
oblivion.  His  successor  and  son,  however,  observed  no 
Their  SJTO-  such  impartiality.  To  Saracenic  tastes,  shown 
cenic  tastes,  ty  hjs  building  a  palace  like  that  of  the  khalif ; 
to  a  devotion  for  poetry,  exemplified  by  branding  some  of 
his  own  stanzas  on  his  image- worshipping  enemies ;  to  the 
composition  of  music  and  its  singing  by  himself  as  an 
amateur  in  the  choir ;  to  mechanical  knowledge,  displayed 
by  hydraulic  contrivances,  musical  instruments,  organs, 
automatic  singing-birds  sitting  in  golden  trees,  he  added 


CH.  XIV.]  THE  AGE  OF  FAITH  IN  THE  TVEST.  421 

an  abomination  of  monks  and  a  determined  iconoclasm. 
Instead  of  merely  whitewashing  the  walls  of  the  churches, 
he  adorned  them  with  pictures  of  beasts  and  birds.  Icono- 
clasm had  now  become  a  struggle  between  the  emperors 
and  the  monks. 

Again,   on    the   death    of    Theophilus,   image- worship 
triumphed,  and  triumphed  in  the  same  manner  Final  regtora- 
as  before.     His  widow,  Theodora,  alarmed  by  tionofimage- 
the  monks  for  the   safety  of  the  soul  of  her  ^Empress 
husband,  purchased  absolution  for  him  at  the  Theotlora- 
price  of  the  restoration  of  images. 

Such  was  the  issue  of  Iconoclasm  in  the  East.  The 
monks  proved  stronger  than  the  emperors,  and,  after  a 
struggle  of  120  years,  the  images  were  finally  restored. 
In  the  West  far  more  important  consequences  followed. 

To  image- worship  Italy  was  devoutly  attached.     When 
the  first  edict  of  Leo  was  made  known  by  the  lmn  e.wor. 
exarch,  it  produced  a  rebellion,  of  which  Pope  s^p  in  the 
Gregory   II.   took    advantage   to  suspend  the  West 
tribute  paid  by  Italy.     In  letters  that  he  wrote  to  the 
emperor  he  defended  the  popular  delusion,  declaring  that 
the  first  Christians  had  caused  pictures  to  be  made  of  our 
Lord,  of  his  brother  James,  of  Stephen,  and  all  the  martyrs, 
and  had  sent  them  throughout  the  world  ;  the  reason  that 
God  the  Father  had  not  been  painted  was  that  his  coun- 
tenance was   not   known.     These  letters  display  a  most 
audacious  presumption  of  the  ignorance   of  the  emperor 
respecting  common  Scripture  incidents,  and,  as  It  ^  gu<taill. 
some  have  remarked,  suggest  a  doubt  of  the  ed  by  the 
pope's  familiarity  with  the  sacred  volume.     He  pope> 
points  out  the  difference  between  the  statues  of  antiquity, 
which  are  only  the  representations  of  phantoms,  and  the 
images  of  the  Church,  which  have  approved  themselves, 
by  numberless  miracles,  to  be  the  genuine  forms  of  the 
Saviour,   his  mother,  and  his   saints.     Keferring   to   the 
statue  of  St.  Peter,  which  the  emperor  had  ordered  to  be 
broken  to  pieces,  he  declares  that  the  Western  nations 
regard  that  apostle  as  a  god  upon  earth,  and  ominously 
threatens  the  vengeance  of  the  pious  barbarians  if  it  should 
be  destroyed.     In  this  defence  of  images  Gregory  found 
an  active  coadjutor  in  a  Syrian,  John  of  Damascus,  who 


422  THE  AGE  OF  FAITH   IN   THE  WEST.  [CH.  XIV. 

had  witnessed  the  rage  of  the  khalifs  against  the  images 
of  his  own  country,  and  whose  hand,  having  been  cut  off 
by  those  tyrants,  had  been  miraculously  rejoined  to  his 
body  by  an  idol  of  the  Virgin  to  which  he  prayed. 

But  Gregory  was  not  alone  in  his  policy,  nor  John  of 
and  by  the  Damascus  in  his  controversies.  The  King  of  the 
Lombard  Lombards,  Luitprand,  also  perceived  the  advan- 
tallg'  tage  of  putting  himself  forth  as  the  protector  of 

images,  and  of  appealing  to  the  Italians,  for  their  sake,  to 
expel  the  Greeks  from  the  country.  The  pope  acted  on 
the  principle  that  heresy  in  a  sovereign  justifies  with- 
drawal of  allegiance,  the  Lombard  that  it  excuses  the 
seizure  of  possessions.  Luitprand  accordingly  ventured 
on  the  capture  of  Ravenna.  An  immense  booty,  the 
accumulation  of  the  emperors,  the  Gothic  kings,  and  the 
exarchs,  which  was  taken  at  the  storming  of  the  town,  at 
once  rewarded  his  piety,  stimulated  him  to  new  enterprises 
of  a  like  nature,  and  drew  upon  him  the  attention  of  his 
enemy  the  emperor,  whom  he  had  plundered,  and  of  his 
confederate  the  pope,  whom  he  had  overreached. 

This  was  the  position  of  affairs.  If  the  Lombards,  who 
were  Arians,  and  therefore  heretics,  should  succeed  in 
position  of  extending  their  sway  all  over  Italy,  the  influence 
affaire  at  this  and  prosperity  of  the  papacy  must  come  to  an 
end  ;  their  action  on  the  question  of  the  images 
was  altogether  of  an  ephemeral  and  delusive  kind,  for  all 
the  northern  nations  preferred  a  simple  worship  like  that  of 
primitive  times,  and  had  never  shown  any  attachment  to 
the  adoration  of  graven  forms.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  the 
pope  should  continue  his  allegiance  to  Constantinople,  he 
must  be  liable  to  the  atrocious  persecutions  so  often  and  so 
recently  inflicted  on  the  patriarchs  of  that  city  by  their 
tyrannical  master ;  and  the  breaking  of  that  connexion  in 
reality  involved  no  surrender  of  any  solid  advantages,  for 
the  einpevor  was  too  weak  to  give  protection  from  the 
Lombards.  Already  had  been  experienced  a  portentous 
difficulty  in  sending  relief  from  Constantinople, 

The  Saracens  «•     ,1  i  -j.          *    ji 

dominated     on   account   ot    the   naval    superiority   of   the 

the  Mcditer-    Saracens  in  the  Mediterranean.     For  the  taxes 

paid  to  the  sovereign  no  real  equivalent  was 

received ;  but  Rome,  in  ignominy,  was  obliged  to  submit, 


•3H.  XIV.J  THE   AGE  OF   KA1TH   IN   THE   WEST.  423 

like  an  obscure  provincial  town,  to  the  mandates  of  the 
Eastern  court.  Moreover,  in  her  eyes,  the  emperor,  by 
reason  of  his  iconoclasm,  was  a  heretic.  But  if  alliance 
with  the  Lombards  and  allegiance  to  the  Greeks  were 
equally  inexpedient,  a  third  course  was  possible.  A  mayor 
of  the  palace  of  the  Frankish  kings  had  success- 
fully led  his  armies  against  the  Arabs  from  aiiSnce°ofthe 
Spain,  and  had  gained  the  great  victory  of  P.°j** ttnd  the 
Tours.  If  the  Franks,  under  the  influence 
of  their  climate  or  the  genius  of  their  race,  had  thus  far 
shown  no  encouragement  to  images,  in  all  other  respects 
they  were  orthodox,  for  they  had  been  converted  by 
Catholic  missionaries ;  their  kings,  it  was  true,  were  mere 
phantoms,  but  Charles  Martel  had  proved  himself  a  great 
soldier  ;  he  was,  therefore,  an  ambitious  man.  There  was 
Scripture  authority  for  raising  a  subordinate  to  sovereign 
power;  the  prophets  of  Israel  had  thus,  of  old,  with  oil 
anointed  kings.  And  if  the  sword  of  France  was  gently 
removed  from  the  kingly  hand  that  was  too  weak  to  hold 
it,  and  given  to  the  hero  who  had  already  shown  that  he 
could  smite  terribly  with  it — if  this  were  done  by  the 
authority  of  the  pope,  acting  as  the  representative  of  God, 
how  great  the  gain  to  the  papacy !  A  thousand  years 
might  not  be  enough  to  separate  the  monarchy  of  Franco 
from  the  theocracy  of  Italy. 

The  resistance  which  had  sprung  up  to  the  imperial 
edict  for  the  destruction  of  images  determined  the  course 
of  events.  The  pope  rebelled,  and  attempts  were  made  by 
the  emperor  to  seize  or  assassinate  him.  A  fear  Revolt  of  the 
that  the  pontiff  might  be  carried  to  Constanti-  pope  from  the 
nople,  and  the  preparations  making  to  destroy  emPeror- 
the  images  in  the  churches,  united  all  Italy.  A  council 
was  held  at  Rome,  which  anathematized  the  Iconoclasts. 
In  retaliation,  the  Sicilian  and  other  estates  of  the  Church 
were  confiscated.  Gregory  III.,  who  in  the  meantime 
succeeded  to  the  papacy,  continued  the  policy  of  his  pre- 
decessor. The  emperor  was  defied.  A  fleet,  fitted  out  by 
him  in  support  of  the  exarch,  was  lost  in  a  storm.  With 
this  termination  of  the  influence  of  Constantinople  in  Italy 
came  the  imminent  danger  that  the  pope  must  acknowledge 
the  supremacy  of  the  Lombards.  In  his  distress  Gregory 


424  THE   AGE   OF   FAITH   IN   THE   WEST.  [dl.  XIV. 

turned  to  Charles  Martel.  He  sent  him  the  keys  of  the 
Alliance  of  sepulchre  of  St.  Peter,  and  implored  his  assist- 
the  pope  ami  ance.  The  die  was  cast.  Papal  Rome  revolted 
the  Franks.  from  her  sovereign,  and  became  indissolubly 
bound  to  the  barbarian  kingdoms.  To  Franco  a  new 
dynasty  was  given,  to  the  pope  temporal  power,  and  to  the 
west  of  Europe  a  fictitious  Roman  empire. 

The   monks   had    thus    overcome   the    image-breaking 
emperors,  a  result  which  proves  them  to  have 

The  monks.          ,    r    ,      ,  ,,          •  j    i  i  ,1 

already  become  a  formidable  power  in  the  state. 
It  is  necessary,  for  a  proper  understanding  of  the  great 
events  with  which  henceforth  they  were  connected,  to 
describe  their  origin  and  history. 

In  the  iconoclastic  quarrel  they  are  to  be  regarded  as 
the  representatives  of  the  common  people  in  contradistinc- 
tion to  the  clergy ;  often,  indeed,  the  representatives  of 
the  populace,  infected  with  all  its  instincts  of  superstition 
and  fanaticism.  They  are  the  upholders  of  miracle-cures, 
Their  first  invocation  of  saints,  worship  of  images,  clamorous 
position  asserters  of  a  unity  of  faith  in  the  Church — a 
nnity  which  they  never  practised,  but  which  offered  a 
convenient  pretext  for  a  bitter  persecution  of  heresy  and 
paganism,  though  they  were  more  than  half  pagan  them 
selves. 

It  was  their  destiny  to  impress  on  the  practical  life  of 
Europe  that  mixture  of  Christianity  and  heathenism 
ancuubse-  engendered  by  political  events  in  Italy  and 
quent  im-  Greece.  Yet,  while  they  thus  co-operated  in 
ent-  great  aff.tirs,  they  themselves  exhibited,  in  the 
most  signal  manner,  the  force  of  that  law  of  continuous 
variation  of  opinion  and  habits  to  which  all  enduring 
communities  of  men  must  submit.  Born  of  superstition, 
obscene  in  their  early  life,  they  end  in  luxury,  refinement, 
learning.  Theirs  is  a  history  to  which  we  may  profitably 
attend. 

From  very  early  times  there  had  been  in  India  zealots 
The  first         who,  actuated  by  a  desire  of  removing  them- 
selves from  the  temptations  of  society  and  pre- 
paring for  another  life,  retired  into  solitary  places.     Such 
also  were  the  Essenes  among  the  Jews,  and  the  Therapeuta* 


CH.  XIV.]  THE  AGE  OP  FAITH   IN   THE  WEST.  425 

in  Egypt.  Pliny  speaks  of  the  blameless  life  of  the  former 
when  he  says,  "  They  are  the  companions  of  palms  ;" 
nor  does  he  hide  his  astonishment  at  an  immortal  society 
in  which  no  one  is  ever  born.  Their  example  was  not 
lost  upon  more  devout  Christians,  particularly  after  the 
influence  of  Magianism  began  to  be  felt.  Though  it  is 
sometimes  said  that  the  first  of  these  hermits  were  Anthony 
and  Paulus,  they  doubtless  are  to  be  regarded  as  only 
having  rendered  themselves  more  illustrious  by  their 
superior  sanctity  among  a  crowd  of  worthies  who  had 
preceded  them  or  were  their  contemporaries.  As  early  as 
the  second  and  third  centuries  the  practice  of  retirement 
had  commenced  among  Christians ;  soon  afterwards  it  had 
become  common.  The  date  of  Hilarion  is  about  A.D.  328, 
of  Basil  A.D.  360.  Regarding  prayer  as  the  only  occupa- 
tion in  which  man  may  profitably  engage,  they  gave  no 
more  attention  to  the  body  than  the  wants  of  nature 
absolutely  demanded.  A  little  dried  fruit  or  bread  for 
food,  and  water  for  drink,  were  sufficient  for  its  Their  self- 
support  ;  occasionally  a  particle  of  salt  might  be  donial- 
added,  but  the  use  of  warm  water  was  looked  upon  as 
betraying  a  tendency  to  luxury.  The  incentives  to  many 
of  their  rules  of  life  might  excite  a  smile,  if  it  were  right 
to  smile  at  the  acts  of  earnest  men.  Some,  like  the  inno- 
cent Essenes,  who  would  do  nothing  whatever  on  the 
Sabbath,  observed  the  day  before  as  a  fast,  rigorously 
abstaining  from  food  and  drink,  that  nature  might  not 
force  them  into  sin  on  the  morrow.  For  some,  it  was  not 
enough,  by  the  passive  means  of  abstinence,  to  refrain  from 
fault  or  reduce  the  body  to  subjection,  though  starvation 
is  the  antidote  for  desire ;  the  more  active,  and,  perhaps, 
more  effectual  operation  of  periodical  flagellations  and 
bodily  torture  were  added.  Ingenuity  was  taxed  to 
find  new  means  of  personal  infliction.  A  hermit  who 
never  permitted  himself  to  sleep  more  than  an  hour 
without  being  awakened  endured  torments  not  inferior  to 
those  of  the  modern  fakir,  who  crosses  his  arms  on  the  top 
of  his  head  and  keeps  them  there  for  years,  until  they  are 
wasted  to  the  bone,  or  suspends  himself  to  a  pole  by  means 
of  a  hook  inserted  in  the  flesh  of  his  back. 

Among  the  Oriental  sects  there  are  some  who  believe 


426  THE   AGE   OF   FAITH   IN   THE   WEST.  [CH.  XIV. 

that  the  Supreme  Being  is  perpetually  occupied  in  the  con- 
Profound  con-  templation  of  himself,  and  that  the  nearer  man 
temptation  of  can  approach  to  a  state  of  total  inaction  the  more 
will  he  resemble  God.  For  many  years  the 
Indian  sage  never  raises  his  eyes  from  his  navel ;  absorbed 
in  the  profound  contemplation  of  it,  his  perennial  reverie 
is  unbroken  by  any  outward  suggestions,  the  admiring 
by-standers  administering,  as  chance  otters,  the  little  food 
Aerial  an<^  water  that  his  wants  require.  Under  the 

maityrs.  influence  of  such  ideas,  in  the  fifth  century,  St. 
Holy  birds.  g;meon  gtylites,  who  in  his  youth  had  often 
been  saved  from  suicide,  by  ascending  a  column  he  had 
built,  sixty  feet  in  height,  and  only  one  foot  square  at  the 
top,  departed  as  far  as  he  could  from  earthly  affairs,  and 
approached  more  closely  to  heaven.  On  this  elevated 
retreat,  to  which  he  was  fastened  by  a  chain,  he  endured, 
if  we  may  believe  the  incredible  story,  for  thirty  years  the 
summer's  sun  and  the  winter's  frost.  Afar  off  the  passer-by 
was  edified  by  seeing  the  motionless  figure  of  the  holy  man 
with  outstretched  arms  like  a  cross,  projected  against  the 
sky,  in  his  favourite  attitude  of  prayer,  or  expressing  his 
thankfulness  for  the  many  mercies  of  which  he  supposed 
himself  to  be  the  recipient  by  rapidly  striking  his  forehead 
against  his  knees.  Historians  relate  that  a  curious  spec- 
tator counted  twolve  hundred  and  forty-four  of  these 
motions,  and  then  abstained  through  fatigue  from  any 
farther  tally,  though  the  unwparied  exhibition  was  still 
going  on.  This  "  most  holy  aerial  martyr,"  as  Evagrius 
calls  him,  attained  at  last  his  reward,  and  Mount  Telenissa 
witnessed  a  vast  procession  of  devout  admirers  accompany- 
ing to  the  grave  his  mortal  remains. 

More  commonly,  however,  the  hermit  declined  the  con- 
spicuous notoriety  of  these  "  holy  birds,"  as  they  were  called 
by  the  profane,  and,  retiring  to  some  cave  in  the  desert, 
despised  the  comforts  of  life,  and  gave  himself  up  to 
penance  and  prayer.  Among  men  who  had  thus  altogether 
exalted  themselves  above  the  wants  of  the  flesh,  there  was 
Themonksin-  no  toleration  for  its  lusts.  The  sinfulness  of  the 
CM  0:1  ce-  marriage  relation,  and  the  pre-eminent  value  of 
chastity,  followed  from  their  principles.  If  it 
was  objected  to  such  practices  that  by  their  universal 


CH.  XIV.]  THE  AGE  OF  FAITH  IN   THE  WEST.  42? 

adoption  the  human  species  would  soon  be  extinguished, 
and  no  man  would  remain  to  offer  praises  to  God,  these 
zealots,  remembering  the  temptations  from  which  they  had 
escaped,  with  truth  replied  that  there  would  always  be 
sinners  enough  in  the  world  to  avoid  that  disaster,  and 
that  out  of  their  evil  works  good  would  be  brought.  St. 
Jerome  offers  us  the  pregnant  reflection  that,  though  it 
may  be  marriage  that  fills  the  earth,  it  is  virginity  that 
replenishes  heaven. 

If  they  were  not  recorded  by  many  truthful  authors,  the 
extravagances  of  some  of  these  enthusiasts  would  pass 
belief.  Men  and  women  ran  naked  upon  all  fours,  associ- 
ating themselves  with  the  beasts  of  the  field.  In  Grazing 
the  spring  season,  when  the  grass  is  tender,  the  ben"its- 
grazing  hermits  of  Mesopotamia  went  forth  to  the  plains, 
sharing  with  the  cattle  their  filth,  and  their  food.  Of  some, 
notwithstanding  a  weight  of  evidence,  the  stupendous 
biography  must  tax  their  admirers'  credulity.  It  is  affirmed 
that  St.  Ammon  had  never  seen  his  own  body  uncovered  ; 
that  an  angel  carried  him  on  his  back  over  a  river  which 
he  was  obliged  to  cross ;  that  at  his  death  he  ascended  to 
heaven  through  the  skies,  St.  Anthony  being  an  eye-witness 
of  the  event — St.  Anthony,  who  was  guided  to  the  hermit 
Paulus  by  a  centaur;  that  Didymus  never  spoke  to  a 
human  being  for  ninety  years. 

From  the  Jewish  anchorites,  who  of  old  sought  a  retreat 
beneath  the  shade  of  the  palms  of  Engaddi,  who  beguiled 
their  weary  hours  in  the  chanting  of  psalms  by  the  bitter 
waters  of  the  Dead  Sea ;  from  the  philosophic  Hindu,  who 
Bought  for  happiness  in  bodily  inaction  and  mental  exercise, 
to  these  Christian  solitaries,  the  stages  of  delu-  insane  her- 
sion  are  numerous  and  successive.  It  would  not  mits- 
be  difficult  to  present  examples  of  each  step  in  the  career 
of  debasement.  To  one  who  is  acquainted  with  the  work- 
ing and  accidents  of  the  human  brain,  it  will  not  be 
surprizing  that  an  asylum  for  hermits  who  had  become 
hopelessly  insane  was  instituted  at  Jerusalem. 

The  biographies  of  these  recluses,  for  ages  a  source  of  con- 
solation to  the  faithful  in  their  temptations,  are  not  to  be 
regarded  as  mere  works  of  fiction,  though  they  abound  in 
supernatural  occurrences,  and  are  the  forerunners  of  the 


428  THE   AGE  OF   FAITH  IN   THE    WEST.  [CH.  XIV. 

daemonology  of  the  Middle  Ages.  The  whole  world  was  a 
scene  of  deemoniac  adventures,  of  miracles  and  wonders.  So 
far  from  being  mere  impostures,  they  relate  nothing  more 
causes  of  hai-  than  may  be  witnessed  at  any  time  under  similar 
lucinatums.  conditions.  In  the  brain  of  man,  impressions  of 
whatever  he  has  seen  or  heard,  of  whatever  has  been  made 
manifest  to  him  by  his  other  senses,  nay,  even  the  vestiges 
of  his  former  thoughts,  are  stored  up.  These  traces  are 
most  vivid  at  first,  but,  by  degrees,  they  decline  in  force, 
ihongh  they  probably  never  completely  die  out.  During 
our  waking  hours,  while  we  are  perpetually  receiving 
new  impressions  from  things  that  surround  us,  such 
vestiges  are  overpowered,  and  cannot  attract  the  attention 
of  the  mind.  But  in  the  period  of  sleep,  when  external 
influences  cease,  they  present  themselves  to  our  regard,  and 
the  mind  submitting  to  the  delusion,  groups  them  into 
the  fantastic  forms  of  dreams.  By  the  use  of  opium  and 
other  drugs  which  can  blunt  our  sensibility  to  passing 
events,  these  phantasms  may  be  made  to  emerge.  They 
also  offer  themselves  in  the  delirium  of  fevers  and  in  the 
hour  of  death. 

It  is  immaterial  in  what  manner  or  by  what  agency  our 
susceptibility  to  the  impressions  of  surrounding  objects  is 
Supernatural  benumbed,  whether  by  drugs,  or  sleep,  or  disease, 
appearances.  as  goon  ag  their  force  is  no  greater  than  that  of 
forms  already  registered  in  the  brain,  those  forms  will 
emerge  before  us,  and  dreams  or  apparitions  are  the  result. 
So  liable  is  the  mind  to  practise  deception  on  itself,  that 
with  the  utmost  difficulty  it  is  aware  of  the  delusion.  No 
man  can  submit  to  long-continued  and  rigorous  fasting 
without  becoming  the  subject  of  these  hallucinations ;  and 
the  more  he  enfeebles  his  organs  of  sense,  the  more  vivid 
is  the  exhibition,  the  more  profound  the  deception.  An 
ominous  sentence  may  perhaps  be  incessantly  whispered  in 
his  ear ;  to  his  fixed  and  fascinated  eye  some  grotesque  or 
abominable  object  may  perpetually  present  itself.  To  the 
hermit,  in  the  solitude  of  his  cell,  there  doubtless  often  did 
appear,  by  the  uncertain  light  of  his  lamp,  obscene  shadows 
of  diabolical  import ;  doubtless  there  was  many  an  agony 
with  fiends,  many  a  struggle  with  monsters,  satyrs,  and 
imps,  many  an  earnest,  solemn,  and  manful  controversy 


JH.  XIV.]  THE  AGE  OF  FAITH  IN  THE  WEST.  429 

with  Satan  himself,  who  sometimes  came  as  an  aged  man, 
sometimes  with  a  countenance  of  horrible  intelligence,  and 
sometimes  as  a  female  fearfully  beautiful.  St.  Jerome,  who, 
with  the  utmost  difficulty,  had  succeeded  in  extinguishing 
all  carnal  desires,  ingenuously  confesses  how  sorely  he  was 
tried  by  this  last  device  of  the  enemy,  how  nearly  the 
ancient  flames  were  rekindled.  As  to  the  reality  of  these 
apparitions,  why  should  a  hermit  be  led  to  suspect  that 
they  arose  from  the  natural  working  of  his  own  brain  ? 
Men  never  dream  that  they  are  dreaming.  To  him  they 
were  terrible  realities ;  to  us  they  should  be  the  proofs  of 
insanity,  not  of  imposture. 

If,  in  the  prison  discipline  of  modern  times,  it  has  been 
found  that  solitary  confinement  is  a  punishment  too 
dreadful  for  the  most  hardened  convict  to  bear,  and  that, 
if  persisted  in,  it  is  liable  to  lead  to  insanity,  how  much 
more  quickly  must  that  unfortunate  condition  have  been 
induced  when  the  trials  of  religious  distress  and  the 
physical  enfeeblement  arising  from  rigorous  fastings  and 
incessant  watchings  were  added  ?  To  the  dreadful  ennui 
which  precedes  that  state,  one  of  the  ancient  monks 
pathetically  alludes  when  he  relates  how  often  he  went 
forth  and  returned  to  his  cell,  and  gazed  on  the  sun  as  if 
he  hastened  too  slowly  to  his  setting.  And  yet  such  fearful 
solitude  is  of  but  brief  duration.  Even  though  we  flee 
to  the  desert  we  cannot  be  long  alone.  Cut  off  from  social 
converse,  the  mind  of  man  engenders  companions  Deluslons 
for  itself — companions  like  the  gloom  from  which  created  by  the 
they  have  emerged.  It  was  thus  that  to  St.  mind* 
Anthony  appeared  the  Spirit  of  Fornication,  under  the 
form  of  a  lascivious  negro  boy;  it  was  thus  that  multitudes 
of  daemons  of  horrible  aspect  cruelly  beat  him  nearly  to 
death,  the  brave  old  man  defying  them  to  the  last,  and 
telling  them  that  he  did  not  wish  to  be  spared  one  of  their 
blows  ;  it  was  thus  that  in  the  night,  with  hideous 
laughter,  they  burst  into  his  cell,  under  the  form  of  lions, 
serpents,  scorpions,  asps,  lizards,  panthers,  and  wolves, 
each  attacking  him  in  own  way;  thus  that  when,  in 
his  dire  extremity,  he  lifted  his  eyes  for  help,  the  roof  dis- 
appeared, and  amid  beams  of  light  the  Saviour  looked 
down;  thus  it  was  with  the  enchanted  silver  dish  that 


THE  AGE  OF   FAITH   IN   THE  WEST.  [dl.  XIV. 

Satan  gave  him,  which,  being  touched,  vanished  in  smoke ; 
thus  with  the  gigantic  bats  and  centaurs,  and  the  two  lions 
that  helped  him  to  scratch  a  grave  for  Paul. 

The  images  that  may  thus  emerge  from  the  brain  have 
been  classed  by  physiologists  among  the  phenomena  of 
inverse  vision,  or  cerebral  sight.  Elsewhere  I  have  given 
a  detailed  investigation  of  their  nature  ( Human  Physiology, 
chap,  xxi.),  and,  persuaded  that  they  have  played  a  far 
more  important  part  in  human  affairs  than  is  commonly 
supposed,  have  thus  expressed  myself :  "  Men  in  every  part 

of  the  world,  even  among  nations  the  most  abject 
rettetous  re-  and  barbarous,  have  an  abiding  faith  not  only 
brafsMrt™"  *n  *^e  exis*ence  °f  a  spirit  that  animates  us,  but 

also  in  its  immortality.  Of  these  there  are 
multitudes  who  have  been  shut  out  from  all  communion 
with  civilized  countries,  who  have  never  been  enlightened 
by  revelation,  and  who  are  mentally  incapable  of  reasoning 
out  for  themselves  arguments  in  support  of  those  great 
truths.  Under  such  circumstances,  it  is  not  very  likely 
that  the  uncertainties  of  tradition,  derived  from  remote 
ages,  could  be  any  guide  to  them,  for  traditions  soon  dis- 
appear except  they  be  connected  with  the  wants  of  daily 
life.  Can  there  be,  in  a  philosophical  view,  anything 
more  interesting  than  the  manner  in  which  these  defects 
have  been  provided  for  by  implanting  in  the  very  organiza- 
tion of  every  man  the  means  of  constantly  admonishing  him 
of  these  facts  —  of  recalling  them  with  an  unexpected  vivid- 
ness before  even  after  they  have  become  so  faint  as  almost  to 
die  out  ?  Let  him  be  as  debased  and  benighted  a  savage 
as  he  may,  shut  oct  from  all  communion  with  races  whom 
Providence  has  placed  in  happier  circumstances,  ho  has 
s1  ill  the  same  organization,  and  is  liable  to  the  same 
physiological  incidents,  as  ourselves.  Like  us,  he  sees  in 
A  future  his  visions  the  fading  forms  of  landscapes  which 
worM.  are  perhaps  conn  ected  with  some  of  his  most  grate- 

ful recollections,  and  what  other  conclusion  can  he  possibly 
derive  from  these  unreal  pictures  than  that  they  are  the 
foreshadowings  of  another  land  beyond  that  in  which  his 
lot  is  cast.  Like  us,  he  is  revisited  at  intervals  by  the 
resemblances  of  those  whom  he  has  loved  or  hated  while 
they  were  alive,  nor  can  he  ever  be  so  brutalized  as  not  to 


OH.  XIV.  J  THE  AGE  OF  FAITH  IN   THE   WEST.  431 

discern  in  such  manifestations  suggestions  which  to  him  are 
incontrovertible  proofs  of  the  existence  and  im-  immortality 
mortality  of  the  soul.  Even  in  the  most  refined  of  tht;  sonl 
social  conditions  we  are  never  able  to  shake  off  the  impres- 
sions of  these  occurrences,  and  are  perpetually  drawing  from 
them  the  same  conclusions  thrt  our  uncivilized  ancestors 
did.  Our  more  elevated  condition  of  life  in  no  respect 
relieves  us  from  the  inevitable  consequences  of  our  own 
organization,  any  more  than  it  relieves  us  from  infirmities 
and  disease.  In  these  respects,  all  over  the  globe  we  are 
on  an  equality.  Savage  or  civilized,  we  carry  within  us  a 
mechanism  intended  to  present  to  us  mementoes  of  the 
most  solemn  facts  with  which  we  can  be  concerned,  and 
the  voice  of  history  tells  us  that  it  has  ever  been  true  to 
its  design.  It  wants  only  moments  of  repose  or  sickness, 
when  the  influence  of  external  things  is  diminished,  to 
come  into  full  play,  and  these  are  precisely  the  moments 
when  we  are  best  prepared  for  the  truths  it  is  going  to 
suggest.  Such  a  mechanism  is  in  keeping  with  the  manner 
in  which  the  course  of  nature  is  fulfilled,  and  bears  in  its 
very  style  the  impress  of  invariability  of  action.  It  is  no 
respecter  of  persons.  It  neither  permits  the  haughtiest  to 
be  free  from  its  monitions,  nor  leaves  the  humblest  without 
the  consolation  of  a  knowledge  of  another  life.  Liable  to 
no  mischances,  open  to  no  opportunities  of  being  tampered 
with  by  the  designing  or  interested,  requiring  no  extraneous 
human  agency  for  its  effect,  but  always  present  with  each 
man  wherever  he  may  go,  it  marvellously  extracts  from 
vestiges  of  the  impressions  of  the  past  overwhelming  proofs 
of  the  reality  of  the  future,  and  gathering  its  power  from 
what  would  seem  to  be  a  most  unlikely  source,  it  insen- 
sibly leads  us,  no  matter  who  or  where  we  may  be,  to  a 
profound  belief  in  the  immortal  and  imperishable,  from 
phantoms  that  have  scarcely  made  their  appearance  before 
they  are  ready  to  vanish  away." 

From  such  beginnings  the  monastic  system  of  Europe 
arose — that  system  which  presents  us  with  learn-  Ameiioration 
ing  in  the  place  of  ferocious  ignorance,  with  over-  *£•"* 
flowing   charity   to   mankind   in   the   place   of 
malignant  hatred  of  society.      The   portly  abbot  on  his 
easy  going  palfrey,  his  hawk  upon  his  fist,  scarce  looks  like 


432  THE   AGE  OF   FAITH   IN   THE  WEST.  (^CII.  XIV« 

the  lineal  descendant  of  the  hermit  starved  into  insanity. 
How  wide  the  interval  between  the  monk  of  the  third  and 
the  monk  of  the  thirteenth  century — between  the  caverns 
of  Thebais  and  majestic  monasteries  cherishing  the  relics  of 
ancient  learning,  the  hopes  of  modern  philosophy — between 
the  butler  arranging  his  well-stocked  larder,  and  the  jug 
of  cold  water  and  crust  of  bread.  A  thousand  years  had 
turned  starvation  into  luxury,  and  alas !  if  the  spoilers  of 
iw  final  cor-  the  Reformation  are  to  be  believed,  had  con- 
ruptions.  verted  visions  of  loveliness  into  breathing  and 
blushing  realities,  who  exercised  their  charms  with  better 
effect  than  of  old  their  phantom  sisters  had  done. 

The  successive  stages  to  this  end  may  be  briefly  de- 
scribed. Around  the  cell  of  some  eremite  like  Anthony, 
who  fixed  his  retreat  on  Mount  Colzim,  a  number  of 
humble  imitators  gathered,  emulous  of  his  austerities  and 
The  mndifica-  °^  n^s  piety-  -^  similar  sentiment  impels  them 
tionsof  to  observe  stated  hours  of  prayer.  Necessity  for 
supporting  the  body  indicates  some  pursuit  of 
idle  industry,  the  plaiting  of  mats  or  making  of  baskets. 
So  strong  is  the  instinctive  tendency  of  man  to  association, 
that  even  communities  of  madmen  may  organize.  Hilarion 
is  said  to  have  been  the  first  who  established  a  monastic 
community.  He  went  into  the  desert  when  he  was  only 
fifteen  years  old.  Eremitism  thus  gave  birth  to  Ccenolii- 
tism,  and  the  evils  of  solitude  were  removed.  Yet  still 
there  remained  rigorous  anchorites  who  renounced  their 
associated  brethren  as  these  had  renounced  the  world,  and 
the  monastery  was  surrounded  by  their  circle  of  solitary 
cells — a  Laura,  it  was  called.  In  Egypt,  the  sandy  deserts 
on  each  side  of  the  rich  valley  of  the  river  offered  great 
facilities  for  such  a  mode  of  life  :  that  of  Nitria  was  full  of 
monks,  the  climate  being  mild  and  the  wants  of  man  easily 
Number  of  satisfied.  It  is  said  that  there  were  at  one  time 
anchontes.  jn  ^hat  country  of  tlieso  religious  recluses  not 
fewer  than  seventy-six  thousand  males  and  twenty-seven 
thousand  females.  With  countless  other  uncouth  forms, 
under  the  hot  sun  of  that  climate  they  seemed  to  be 
spawned  from  the  mud  of  the  Nile.  As  soon  as  from  some 
celebrated  hermitage  a  monastery  had  formed,  the  associates 
submitted  to  the  rules  of  brotherhood.  Their  meal,  eaten 


CH.  XIV.]  THE  AGE  OF   FAITH   IN   THE   WEST.  433 

in  silence,  consisted  of  bread  and  water,  oil,  and  a  little 
salt.  The  bundle  of  papyrus  which  had  served  the  monk 
for  a  seat  by  day,  while  he  made  his  baskets  or  mats, 
served  him  for  a  pillow  by  night.  Twice  he  was  roused 
from  his  sleep  by  the  sound  of  a  horn  to  offer  up  his 
prayers.  The  culture  of  superstition  was  compelled  by 
inexorable  rules.  A  discipline  of  penalties,  confinement, 
fasting,  whipping,  and,  at  a  later  period  even  mutilation, 
was  inflexibly  administered. 

From  Egypt  and  Syria  monachism  spread  like  an  epi- 
demic. It  was  first  introduced  into  Italy  by  spread  of  mo- 
Athanasius,  assisted  by  some  of  the  disciples  of  nasticfom 
Anthony;  but  Jerome,  whose  abode  was  in  fr 
Palestine,  is  celebrated  for  the  multitude  of  converts  he 
made  to  a  life  of  retirement.  Under  his  persuasion, 
many  of  the  high-born  ladies  of  Kome  were  led  to  the 
practice  of  monastic  habits,  as  far  as  was  possible,  in 
secluded  spots  near  that  city,  on  the  ruins  of  temples,  and 
even  in  the  Forum.  Some  were  induced  to  retreat  to  the 
Holy  Land,  after  bestowing  their  wealth  for  pious  purposes. 
The  silent  monk  insinuated  himself  into  the  privacy  of 
families  for  the  purpose  of  making  proselytes  by  stealth. 
Soon  there  was  not  an  unfrequented  island  in  the  Mediter- 
ranean, no  desert  shore,  no  gloomy  valley,  no  forest,  no 
glen,  no  volcanic  crater,  that  did  not  witness  exorbitant 
selfishness  made  the  rule  of  life.  There  were  multitudes 
of  hermits  on  the  desolate  coasts  of  the  Plack  Sea.  They 
Abounded  from  the  freezing  Tanais  to  the  sultry  Tabenne. 
In  rigorous  personal  life  and  in  supernatural  power  the 
West  acknowledged  no  inferiority  to  the  East ;  his  admiring 
imitators  challenged  even  the  desert  of  Thebais  to  produce 
the  equal  of  Martin  of  Tours.  The  solitary  anchorite  was 
soon  supplanted  by  the  coenobitic  establishment,  the 
monastery.  It  became  a  fashion  among  the  rich  to  give 
all  that  they  had  to  these  institutions  for  the  salvation  of 
their  own  souls.  There  was  now  no  need  of  basket-making 
or  the  weaving  of  mats.  The  brotherhoods  increased 
rapidly.  Whoever  wanted  to  escape  from  the  barbarian 
invaders,  or  to  avoid  the  hardships  of  serving  in  the 
imperial  army — whoever  had  become  discontented  with 
his  worldly  affairs,  or  saw  in  those  dark  times  no  induce- 

VOL.  I.— 20 


434  THK    AGE   OF   FAITH    IN    THE   WEST.  [dl.  XIV. 

ments  in  a  home  and  family  of  his  own,  found  in  the 
increase  of  monastery  a  sure  retreat.  The  number  of  these 
the  religious  religious  houses  eventiially  became  very  great. 

They  were  usually  placed  on  the  most  charming 
and  advantageous  sites,  their  solidity  and  splendour  illus- 
trating the  necessity  of  erecting  durable  habitations  fur 
societies  that  were  immortal.  It  often  fell  out  that  the 
Church  laid  claim  to  the  services  of  some  distinguished 
monk.  It  was  significantly  observed  that  the  road  to 
ecclesiastical  elevation  lay  through  the  monastery  porch, 
and  often  ambition  contentedly  wore  for  a  season  the  cowl, 
that  it  might  seize  more  surely  the  mitre. 

Though  the  monastic  system  of  the  East  included  labour, 

it  was  greatly  inferior  to  that  of  the  West  in 
the  Eastern  that  particular.  The  Oriental  monk,  at  first 
and  Western  making  selfishness  his  rule  of  life,  and  his  own 

salvation  the  grand  object,  though  all  the  world 
else  should  perish,  in  his  maturer  period  occupied  his  intel- 
lectual powers  in  refined  disputations  of  theology.  Too 
often  he  exhibited  his  physical  strength  in  the  furious  riots 
he  occasioned  in  the  streets  of  the  great  cities.  He  was  a 
fanatic  and  insubordinate.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Occi- 
dental monk  showed  far  less  disposition  for  engaging  in 
the  discussion  of  things  above  reason,  and  expended  his 
strength  in  useful  and  honourable  labour.  Beneath  his 
hand  the  wilderness  became  a  garden.  To  a  considerable 
extent  this  difference  was  due  to  physiological  peculiarity, 
and  yet  it  must  not  be  concealed  that  the  circumstances  of 
life  in  the  two  cases  were  not  without  their  e fleets.  The  old 
countries  of  the  East,  with  their  worn-out  civilization  and 
worn-out  soil,  offered  no  inducements  comparable  with  the 
barbarous  but  young  and  fertile  West,  where  to  the 
ecclesiastic  the  most  lovely  and  inviting  lands  were  open. 
Both,  however,  coincided  in  this,  that  they  regarded  the 
aiFairs  of  life  as  presenting  perpetual  interpositions  of  a 
providential  or  rather  supernatural  kind — angels  and  devils 
being  in  continual  conflict  for  the  soul  of  every  man,  who 
might  become  the  happy  prize  of  the  one  or  the  miserable 
prey  of  the  other.  These  spiritual  powers  were  perpetually 
controlling  the  course  of  nature  and  giving  rise  to  prodigies. 
The  measure  of  holiness  in  a  saint  was  the  number  of 


CH.  XIV.]  THE   AGE  OF   FAITH   IN  THE   WEST.  435 

miracles  he  had  worked.    Thus,  in  the  life  of  St.  Benedict, 
it  is  related   that  when   his  nurse  Cyrilla  let  T 

rn  •  IJ-.L  i  -i   •    i       Legends  of 

tali  a  stone  sieve,  her  distress  was  changed  into  Western 
rejoicing  by  the  prayer  of  the  holy  child,  at  8dUlts' 
which  the  broken  parts  came  together  and  were  made 
whole;  that  once  on  receiving  his  food  in  a  basket,  let 
down  to  his  otherwise  inaccessible  cell,  the  devil  vainly 
tried  to  vex  him  by  breaking  the  rope ;  that  once  Satan, 
assuming  the  form  of  a  blackbird,  nearly  blinded  him  by 
the  flapping  of  his  wings  ;  that  once,  too,  the  same  tempter 
appeared  as  a  beautiful  Eoman  girl,  to  whose  fascinations, 
in  his  youth,  St.  Benedict  had  been  sensible,  and  from 
which  he  now  hardly  escaped  by  rolling  himself  among 
thorns.  Once,  when  his  austere  rules  and  severity  excited 
the  resentment  of  the  monastery  over  which  he  was  abbot, 
tliu  brethren — for  monks  have  been  known  to  do  such 
things — attempted  to  poison  him,  but  the  cup  burst 
asunder  as  soon  as  he  took  it  into  his  hands.  When  the 
priest  Florentius,  being  wickedly  disposed,  attempted  to 
perpetrate  a  like  crime  by  means  of  an  adulterated  loaf, 
a  raven  carried  away  the  deadly  bread  from  the  hand  of 
St.  Benedict.  Instructed  by  the  devil,  the  same  Florentius 
drove  from  his  neighbourhood  the  holy  man,  by  turning 
into  the  garden  of  his  monastery  seven  naked  girls ;  but 
scarcely  had  the  saint  taken  to  flight,  when  the  chamber 
in  which  his  persecutor  lived  fell  in  and  buried  him 
beneath  its  ruins,  though  the  rest  of  the  house  was  unin- 
jured. Under  the  guidance  of  two  visible  angels,  who 
walked  before  him,  St.  Benedict  continued  his  journey  to 
Monte  Casino,  where  he  erected  a  noble  monastery ;  but 
even  here  miracles  did  not  cease  ;  for  Satan  bewitched  the 
stones,  so  that  it  was  impossible  for  the  masons  to  move 
them  until  they  were  released  by  powerful  prayers.  A 
boy,  who  had  stolen  from  the  monastery  to  visit  his  parents 
was  not  only  struck  dead  by  God  for  his  offence,  but  the 
consecrated  ground  threw  forth  his  body  when  they 
attempted  to  bury  it ;  nor  could  it  be  made  to  rest  until 
consecrated  bread  was  laid  upon  it.  Two  garrulous  nuns, 
who  had  been  excommunicated  by  St.  Benedict  for  their 
perverse  prating,  chanced  to  be  buried  in  the  church. 
On  the  next  administration  of  the  sacrament,  when  the 


436  THE   AGE  OF   FAITH   IN   THE   WEST.  [CH.  XIV. 

deacon  commanded  all  those  who  did  not  communicate  to 
depart,  the  corpses  rose  out  of  their  graves  and  walked 
forth  from  the  church. 

Volumes  might  be  filled  with  such  wonders,  which  edified 
The  character  the  religious  for  centuries,  exacting  implicit  belief, 
of  these  and  being  regarded  as  of  equal  authority  with 
the  miracles  of  the  Holy  Scriptures. 

Though  monastic  life  rested  upon  the  principle  of  social 
abnegation,  monasticism,  in  singular  contradiction  thereto, 
Rise  and  pro-  contained  within  itself  the  principle  of  organiza- 
gressofmo-  tion.  As  early  as  A. D.  370,  St.  Basil,  the  Bishop 
lere<  of  Caesarea,  incorporated  the  hermits  and  cunio- 
bites  of  his  diocese  into  one  order,  called  after  him  the 
Basilian.  One  hundred  and  fifty  years  later,  St.  Benedict, 
under  a  milder  rule,  organised  those  who  have  passed 
under  his  name,  and  found  for  them  occupation  in  suitable 
employments  of  manual  and  intellectual  labour.  In  the 
ninth  century,  another  Benedict  revised  the  rule  of  the 
order,  and  made  it  more  austere.  Offshoots  soon  arose,  as 
those  of  Clugni,  A.D.  900;  the  Carthusians,  A.D.  1084;  the 
Cistercians,  A.D.  1098.  A  favourite  pursuit  among  them 
being  literary  labour,  they  introduced  great  improvements 
in  the  copying  of  manuscripts ;  and  in  their  illumination 
and  illustration  are  found  the  germs  of  the  restoration  of 
painting  and  the  invention  of  cursive  handwriting.  St. 
Benedict  enjoined  his  order  to  collect  books.  It  has  been 
happily  observed  that  he  forgot  to  say  anything  about 
their  character,  supposing  that  they  must  all  be  religious. 
The  Augustinians  were  founded  in  the  eleventh  centuiy. 
They  professed,  however,  to  be  a  restoration  of  the  society 
founded  ages  before  by  St.  Augustine. 

The  influence  to  which  monasticism  attained  may  be 
The  Bcnedic-  judged  of  from  the  boast  of  the  Benedictines 
tines.  that  "p0pe  jonn  XXII.,  who  died  in  1334,  after 

an  exact  inquiry,  found  that,  since  the  first  rise  of  the 
order,  there  had  been  of  it  24  popes,  near  200  cardinals, 
7000  archbishops,  15,000  bishops,  15,000  abbots  of  renown, 
above  4000  saints,  and  upward  of  37,000  monasteries. 
There  have  been  likewise,  of  this  order,  20  emperors  and 
10  empresses,  47  kings  and  above  50  queens,  20  sons  of 
emperors,  and  48  sons  of  kings;  about  100  princesses, 


CH.  XIV.J  THE   AGE   OF    FAITH   IN   THE   WEST.  437 

daughters  of  kings  and  emperors ;  besides  dukes,  marquises, 
earls,  countesses,  etc.,  innumerable.  The  order  has  produced 
a  vast  number  of  authors  and  other  learned  men.  Their 
Rabanus  set  up  the  school  of  Germany.  Their  Alcuin 
founded  the  University  of  Paris.  Their  Dionysius  Exi- 
guus  perfected  ecclesiastical  computation.  Their  Guido 
invented  the  scale  of  music ;  their  Sylvester,  the  organ. 
They  boasted  to  have  produced  Anselm,  Ildefonsus,  and  the 
Venerable  Bede." 

We  too  often  date  the  Christianization  of  a  community 
from  the  conversion  of  its  sovereign,  but  it  is  not  in  the 
nature  of  things  that  that  should  change  the  hearts  of  men. 
Of  what  avail  is  it  if  a  barbarian  chieftain  drives  a  horde 
of  his  savages  through  the  waters  of  a  river  by  way  of 
extemporaneous  or  speedy  baptism  ?  Such  outward  forms 
are  of  little  moment.  It  was  mainly  by  the  ^^n^n^  of 
monasteries  that  to  the  peasant  class  of  Europe  Europe  by  the 
was  pointed  out  the  way  of  civilization.  The  m 
devotions  and  charities ;  the  austerities  of  the  brethren ; 
their  abstemious  meal ;  their  meagre  clothing,  the  cheapest 
of  the  country  in  which  they  lived  ;  their  shaven  heads,  or 
the  cowl  which  shut  out  the  sight  of  sinful  objects ;  the 
long  staff  in  their  hands  ;  their  naked  feet  and  legs ;  their 
passing  forth  on  their  journeys  by  twos,  each  a  watch  on 
his  brother  ;  the  prohibitions  against  eating  outside  of  the 
wall  of  the  monastery,  which  had  its  own  mill,  its  own 
bakehouse,  and  whatever  was  needed  in  an  abstemious 
domestic  economy  ;  their  silent  hospitality  to  the  wayfarer, 
who  was  refreshed  in  a  separate  apartment;  the  lands 
around  their  buildings  turned  from  a  wilderness  into  a 
garden,  and,  above  all,  labour  exalted  and  ennobled  by 
their  holy  hands,  and  celibacy,  for  ever,  in  the  eye  of  the 
vulgar,  a  proof  of  separation  from  the  world  and  a  sacrifice 
to  heaven — these  were  the  things  that  arrested  the  atten- 
tion of  the  barbarians  of  Europe,  and  led  them  on  to 
civilization.  In  our  own  material  age,  the  advocates  of 
the  monastery  have  plaintively  asked,  Where  now  shall 
we  find  an  asylum  for  the  sinner  who  is  sick  of  the  world 
—for  the  man  of  contemplation  in  his  old  age,  or  for  the 
statesman  who  is  tired  of  affairs?  It  was  through  the 
leisure  procured  by  their  wealth  that  the  monasteries 


438  THK   AGE   OF   FAITH   IN   THE   WEST.  [CH.  XIV. 

produced  so  many  cultivators  of  letters,  and  transmitted  to 
us  the  literary  relics  of  the  old  times.  It  was  a  fortunate 
Their  later  ^ay  wnen  the  monk  turned  from  the  weaving  of 
intellectual  mats  to  the  copying  of  manuscripts — a  fortunate 

day  when  he  began  to  compose  those  noble 
hymns  and  strains  of  music  which  will  live  for  ever.  From 
the  "  Dies  Iras "  there  rings  forth  grand  poetry  even  in 
monkish  Latin.  The  perpetual  movements  of  the  monastic 
orders  gave  life  to  the  Church.  The  Protestant  admits 
that  to  a  resolute  monk  the  Reformation  was  due. 

With  these  pre-eminent  merits,  the  monastic  institution 
Their  ma-  had  ^8  evil8-  Through  it  was  spread  that 
fertilization  dreadful  materialization  of  religion  which,  for  so 

many  ages,  debased  sacred  things ;  through  it 
that  worse  than  pagan  apotheosis,  which  led  to  the  adora- 
tion— for  such  it  really  was — of  dead  men ;  through  it  were 
sustained  relics  and  lying  miracles,  a  belief  in  falsehoods 
so  prodigious  as  to  disgrace  the  common  sense  of  man. 
The  apostles  and  martyrs  of  old  were  forgotten  ;  nay,  even 
the  worship  of  God  was  forsaken  for  shrines  that  could  cure 
all  diseases,  and  relics  that  could  raise  the  dead.  Through 
it  was  developed  that  intense  selfishness  which  hesitated 
at  no  sacrifice  either  of  the  present  or  the  future,  so  far  as 
this  life  is  concerned,  in  order  to  insure  personal  happiness 
in  the  next— a  selfishness  which,  in  the  delusion  of  the  times, 
passed  under  the  name  of  piety ;  and  the  degree  of  abase- 
ment from  the  dignity  of  a  man  was  made  the  measure  of 
the  merit  of  a  monk. 


BND  OF  VOL.  L 


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